LINCOLN  ROOM 

UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 
LIBRARY 


MEMORIAL 

the  Class  of  1901 

founded  by 

HARLAN  HOYT  HORNER 

and 

HENRIETTA  CALHOUN  HORNER 


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im  OF  OUR  TIMES; 


OR 


LEADING  PATEIOTS  OF  THE  DAY. 


BEING  NARRATIVES  OF  THE  LIVES  AND  DEEDS  OP 


Statesmen,  Generals,  and  Orators. 


INCLUDING 


BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCHES  AXD  ANECDOTES 


OF 


LINCOLN,    GRANT,    GARRISON,    SUMNER,   CHASE,   WILSON,    GREELEY, 
FARRAGUT,     ANDREW,     COLFAX,    STANTON,   DOUGLASS, 
BUCKINGHAM,    SHERMAN,    SHERIDAN,    HOW- 
ARD,  PHILLIPS   AND    BEECHER. 


BY 

HAREIET  BEECHEE  STOWE, 

AUTHOR  OF  UNCLE  TOM'S  CABIN. 
BEAUTIFULLY  ILLUSTRATED 

WITH  EIGHTEEN  STEEL  PORTRAITS. 


PUBLISHED    BY    SUBSCRIPTION    ONLY. 

HARTFORD  PUBLISHING   CO.,  HARTFORD,   CONN. 

J.  D.  DENISON,  NEW  YORK  ;  J.  A.  STODDARD,  CHICAGO,  ILL. 

1868 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1868,  by 

HARRIET  BEECHER  STOWE, 

in  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  United  States  for  the  District 

of  Connecticut. 


Electrotyped  by 
LOCKWOOD  &  MANDEVILLE, 

HAKTFOBD,  CONN. 


n 


up  3 


dedicatio:n". 


THESE  RECORDS 
OF  THEIR  ELDER  BRETHREN  IN  THE  REPUBLIC, 

ARE   INSCRIBED 

BY    THE    AUTHOR. 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTEATIOITS. 


PAGB. 


1.  President  Lincoln,          .  -  -      frontispiece. 

2.  Gen.  U.  S.  Grant,      -  -  -            -            -    111 

3.  William  L.  Garrison,     -  -  -            .          154 

4.  Charles  Suiuner,        -  -  -            -            -    214 

5.  Salmon  P.  Chase,             _  .  _            _          241 

6.  Henry  Wilson,            .  .  _            _            _    269 

7.  Horace  Greeley,             -  -  .            .           293 

8.  Com.  D.  G.  Farragut,  -  -            -            -    311 

9.  Gov.  John  A.  Andrew,  -  -  -            .          325 

10.  Schuyler  Colfax,      -----    347 

11.  E.  M.  Stanton,     -            -  .  _            _          363 

12.  Frederick  Douglass,  .  _            .            .    330 

13.  Gen.  P.  H.  Sheridan,      -  -  -            .          405 

14.  Gen.  W.  T.  Sherman,  -  .            -            .    423 

15.  Gen.  Oliver  0.  Howard,  .  _            _          447 

16.  Gov.  Wm.  a.  Buckingham,  -  -            -            _    453 

17.  Wendell  Phillips,           -  -  -            _          433 

18.  Rev.  Henry  Ward  Beechbr,  -  -           .    505 


PREFACE. 


In  tliese  sketches  of  some  of  the  leading  public  men  of  our  times, 
the  editor  professes  to  give  such  particulars  of  their  lives,  and  such 
only,  as  the  public  have  a  right  to  know. 

Every  such  man  has  two  lives,  his  public  and  his  private  one. 
The  one  becomes  fairly  the  property  of  the  public,  in  virtue  of  his 
having  been  connected  with  events  in  which  every  one  has  a  share 
of  interest ;  but  the  other  belongs  exclusively  to  himself,  his  family, 
and  his  intimate  friends,  and  the  public  have  no  more  right  to  discuss 
or  pry  into  its  details  than  they  have  into  those  of  any  other  private 
individual. 

The  editor  has  aimed  to  avoid  all  privacies  and  personalities  which 
might  be  indelicate  in  relation  to  family  circles.  She  has  indeed,  in 
regard  to  all  the  characters,  so  far  as  possible,  dwelt  upon  the 
early  family  and  community  influences  by  wliich  they  were  formed, 
particularly  upon  the  character  and  influence  of  mothers ;  but  such 
inquiries  relate  for  the  most  part  to  those  long  dead,  and  whose  mor- 
tal history  has  become  a  tiling  of  the  past. 

Whenever  the  means  have  been  at  hand,  the  family  stock  from 
which  each  man  has  been  derived,  has  been  minutely  traced.  The 
question  of  inherited  traits  is  becoming  yearly  one  of  increasing  in- 
terest, and  most  striking  results  come  from  a  comparison  of  facts 
upon  this  subject.  The  fusion  of  different  races  is  said  to  produce 
marked  results  on  the  characteristics  of  the  human  being.  America 
has  been  a  great  smelting  furnace  in  which  tribes  and  nations  have 
been  melted  together,  and  the  result  ought  to  be  some  new  develop- 
ments of  human  nature.  It  wiU  always  be  both  interesting  and 
useful  to  know  both  the  quality  of  the  family  stock,  and  the  circum- 
stances of  the  early  training  of  men  who  have  acted  any  remarkable 
part  in  life. 


VI  PREFACE. 

Our  country  has  recently  passed  through  a  great  crisis  which  has 
concentrated  upon  it  for  a  time  the  attention  of  the  civilized  world. 
It  has  sustained  a  shock  which  the  whole  world,  judging  by  past 
experience,  said  must  inevitably  shatter  the  republic  to  fragments, 
and  yet,  like  a  gallant  ship  in  full  sail,  it  has  run  down  the  terrible 
obstacle,  and  gone  on  triumphant,  and  is  this  day  stronger  for  the 
collision. 

This  w^onderful  success  is  o^ving  to  the  character  of  the  people 
which  a  Christian  Democracy  breeds.  Of  this  people  we  propose  to 
give  a  specimen;  to  show  how  they  were  formed  in  early  life,  from 
the  influences  which  are  inherent  in  such  a  state. 

We  are  proud  and  happy  to  know  that  these  names  on  our  list  are 
after  all  but  specimens.  Probably  every  reader  of  this  book  will 
recall  as  many  more  whom  he  will  deem  equally  Avorthy  of  public 
notice.  There  is  scarcely  one  of  them  who  would  not  say  in  refer- 
ence to  his  position  before  the  public,  what  Lincoln  said:  "I  stand 
where  I  do  because  some  man  must  stand  there,  but  there  are  twenty 
others  that  might  as  well  have  been  leaders  as  myself."  On  the 
whole,  we  are  not  ashamed  to  present  to  the  world  this  list  of  men 
as  a  specimen  of  the  graduates  from  the  American  school  of  Chris- 
tian Democracy. 

So  far  as  we  know,  the  American  government  is  the  only  perma- 
nent republic  which  ever  based  itself  upon  the  principles  laid  down 
by  Jesus  Christ,  of  the  absolute  equal  brotherhood  of  man,  and  the 
rights  of  man  on  the  simple  ground  of  manhood.  Notwithstanding 
the  contrary  practices  of  a  section  of  the  States  united  in  the  Union, 
and  the  concessions  which  they  introduced  into  the  constitution,  no- 
body doubts  that  this  was  the  leading  idea  of  the  men  w^ho  founded 
our  government.  The  declaration  of  American  Independence  crys- 
talized  a  religious  teaching  within  a  political  act.  The  constitution 
of  the  United  States  still  further  elaborates  these  principles,  and  so 
strong  was  the  logic  of  ideas  that  the  conflict  of  opinions  implied  in 
the  incidental  concessions  to  opposite  ideas,  produced  in  the  govern- 
ment of  the  country  a  continual  and  irrepressible  discord.  For  a 
while  it  seemed  doubtful  which  idea  would  triumph,  and  whether  the 
accidental  parasite  would  not  strangle  and  wither  the  great  original 
tree.  Tlie  late  war  was  the  outcome  of  the  whole.  The  fierce  fire 
into  which  our  national  character  has  been  cast  in  the  hour  of  trial, 


PREFACE.  Vll 

has  burned  out  of  it  the  last  lingering  stain  of  compromise  with  any- 
thing inconsistent  with  its  primary  object,  "to  ordain  justice  and 
perpetuate  liberty." 

These  men  have  all  been  formed  by  the  principles  of  that  great 
Christian  document,  and  that  state  of  society  and  those  social  influ- 
ences which  grew  out  of  it,  and  it  is  instructive  to  watch,  in  their 
early  life,  how  a  Christian  republic  trains  her  sons. 

In  looking  through  the  list  it  will  be  seen  that  almost  every  one 
of  these  men  sprang  from  a  condition  of  hard-working  poverty.  The 
majority  of  them  were  self-educated  men,  who  in  early  life  were 
inured  to  industrious  toil.  The  farm  life  of  America  has  been  the 
nursery  of  great  men,  and  there  is  scarce  a  man  mentioned  in  the 
book  who  has  not  hardened  his  muscles  and  strengthened  his  brain 
power  by  a  hand  to  hand  wrestle  with  the  forces  of  nature  in  agri- 
cultural life.  Frugality,  strict  temperance,  self-reliance  and  indomi- 
table industry  have  been  the  lessons  of  their  early  days. 

Some  facts  about  these  specimen  citizens  are  worthy  of  attention. 
More  than  one-half  of  them  were  born  and  received  their  early  train- 
ing in  New  England,  and  full  one-third  are  direct  lineal  descendants 
of  the  Pilgrim  fathers.  All,  so  far  as  we  know,  are  undoubted  be- 
lievers in  the  Christian  religion — the  greater  proportion  of  them  are 
men  of  peculiarly  and  strongly  religious  natures,  who  have  been 
active  and  efficient  in  every  peculiarly  religious  work.  All  have  been 
agreed  in  one  belief,  that  the  teachings  of  Jesus  Christ  are  to  be  car- 
I'ied  out  in  political  institutions,  and  that  the  form  of  society  based 
on  his  teachings,  is  to  be  defended  at  any  sacrifice  and  at  all  risks. 

There  is  scarcely  a  political  man  upon  this  list  whose  early  efforts 
were  not  menaced  with  loss  and  reproach  and  utter  failure,  if  he 
advocated  these  principles  in  the  conduct  of  political  affairs.  For 
these  principles  they  have  temporarily  suffered  buffetings,  oppres- 
sions, losses,  persecutions,  and  m  one  great  instance.  Death.  All  of 
them  honored  liberty  vrhen  she  was  hard  beset,  insulted  and  traduced, 
and  it  is  fit  that  a  free  people  should  honor  them  in  the  hour  of  her 
victory.    ■ 

It  Avill  be  found  when  the  sum  of  all  these  biograpliies  is  added  up 
that  the  qualities  which  have  won  this  great  physical  and  moral  vic- 
tory have  not  been  so  much  exceptional  gifts  of  genius  or  culture,  as 
those  more  attainable  ones  wliich  belong  to  man's  moral  nature. 


Vlll  PREFACE. 

Taken  as  a  class,  while  there  is  a  fair  proportion  both  of  genius 
and  scholarship  among  them,  yet  the  general  result  speaks  more  of 
average  talent  and  education  turned  to  excellent  account,  than  of  any 
striking  eminence  in  any  particular  direction. 

But  we  regard  it  as  highest  of  all  that  they  were  men  of  good  and 
honest  hearts — men  who  have  set  their  faces  as  a  flint  to  know  and 
do  the  KiGHT.  All  of  them  are  men  whose  principles  have  been 
tried  in  the  fire,  men  who  have  braved  opposition  and  persecution 
and  loss  for  the  sake  of  what  they  believed  to  be  true,  and  knew  to 
be  right,  and  for  this  even  more  than  for  their  bravery  in  facing  dan- 
ger, and  their  patience  and  perseverance  in  overcoming  difficulties, 
we  have  good  hope  in  offering  them  as  examples  to  the  young  men 
of  America. 

In  respect  to  one  of  the  names  on  the  list,  the  editor's  near  relation- 
ship, while  it  gives  her  most  authentic  access  to  all  sources  of  just 
information,  may  be  held  to  require  an  apology.  But  the  fashion  of 
writing  biographies  of  our  leading  men  is  becoming  so  popular  that 
the  only  way  in  which  a  prominent  man  can  protect  himself  from 
being  put  before  the  pubhc  by  any  hands  who  may  think  fit  to  assume 
the  task,  is  to  put  into  the  hands  of  some  friend  such  authentic  par- 
ticulars as  may  with  propriety  be  recorded.  Mr.  Beecher  has  re- 
cently been  much  embarrassed  by  the  solicitation  of  parties,  who  not- 
withstanding his  remonstrances,  announce  an  intention  of  writing  his 
life.  He  has  been  informed  by  them  that  it  was  to  be  done  whether 
he  consented  or  not,  and  that  his  only  choice  was  between  furnishing 
these  parties  with  material,  or  taking  the  risk  of  what  they  might 
discover  in  their  unassisted  researches. 

In  this  dilemma,  it  is  hoped  that  the  sketch  presented  in  this  vol- 
ume, as  being  undeniably  authentic,  may  so  satisfy  the  demand,  that 
there  may  be  no  call  for  any  other  record. 

H.  B.  STOWE. 
Hartford,  January,  1868. 


OOITTEIlTTS. 


PAQK, 

CHAPTER  I.— ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

The  Men  of  our  Time — Lincoln  Foremost — The  "War  was  the  Working-Man's 
Revolution — Abraham  Lincoln's  Birth  and  Youth — The  Books  he  Read — 
The  Thirty  Thousand  Dollars  for  Tender— The  Old  Stocking  of  Govern- 
ment Money — A  Just  Lawyer ;  Anecdotes — His  First  Candidacy  and  Speech 
— Goes  to  Legislature  and  Congress — The  Seven  Debates  and  Campaign 
against  Douglass  in  1858 — "Webster's  and  Lincoln's  Language  Compared — 
The  Cooper  Institute  Speech — The  Nomination  at  Chicago — Moral  and 
Physical  Courage — The  Backwoodsman  President  and  the  Diplomatists — 
Significance  of  his  Presidential  Career — Religious  Feelings — His  Kindness 
— "  The  Baby  Did  It " — The  First  Inaugural — The  Second  Inaugural,  and 
other  State  Papers — The  Conspiracy  and  Assassination — The  Opinions  of 
Foreign  Nations  on  Mr.  Lincoln.    -  -  -  -  -  -11 

CHAPTER  II.— ULYSSES  S.  GRANT. 

A  General  "Wanted — A  Short  "War  Expected — The  Young  Napoleon — God's 
Revenge  Against  Slaverj' — The  Silent  Man  in  Galena — "  Tanning  Leath- 
er"— Gen.  Grant's  Puritan  Descent — How  he  Loaded  the  Logs — His  "West 
Point  Career — Sen-ice  in  Mexico — Marries,  and  Leaves  the  Army — Wood- 
cutting, Dunning  and  Leather-Selling — Enlists  against  the  Rebellion — Mis-- 
souri  Campaign — Paducah  Campaign — Fort  Donclson  Campaign — Battle 
of  Sliiloh — How  Grant  Lost  his  Temper — "V^icksburg  Campaign — Lincoln 
on  Grant's  "Drinking" — Chattanooga — Grant's  Method  of  Making  a  Speech 
— Appointed  Licutenant-Gcneral — The  Richmond  Campaign — "  Mr.  Grant 
is  a  Very  Obstinate  Man  " — Grant's  Qualifications  as  a  Ruler — Honesty — 
Generosity  to  Subordinates — Sound  Judgment  of  Men — Power  of  Holding 
his  Tongue — Grant's  Sidewalk  Platform — Talks  Horse  to  Senator  "Wade — 
"Wants  Nothing  Said  "—The  Best  Man  for  Next  President.        -  -    1 1 1 

CHAPTER  III.— "WILLIAM  LLOYD  GARRISON, 
lilr.  Garrison's  Birth  and  Parents — His  Mother — Her  Conversion — His  Boy- 
hood— Apprenticed  to  a  Printer — First  Anti- Slavery  Address — Advice  to 
Dr.  Beecher — Benjamin  Lundy — Garrison  Goes  to  Baltimore — First  Battle 
with  Slavery — In  .Jail — First  Number  of  the  Liberator — Threats  and  Rage 
from  the  South — The  American  Anti-Slavery  Society — First  "Visit  to  Eng- 
land—The Era  of  Mob  Violence — The  Respectable  Boston  Mob — Mr.  Gar- 
rison's Account — Again  in  Jail — The  Massachusetts  Legislature  Uncivil  to 
the  Abolitionists — Logical  Vigor  of  the  Slaveholders — Garrison's  Disunion- 
ism — Denounces  the  Church— Liberality  of  the  Liberator — The  Southern- 
ers' own  Testimony — Mr.  Garrison's  Bland  Manners — His  Steady  Nerves — 


X  CONTENTS 

His  use  of  Language — Things  by  their  Right  Names — Abolitionist  "  Hard 
Language ;"  Garrison's  Argument  on  it — Protest  for  "Woman's  Eights — The 
Triumph  of  his  Cause — "  The  Liberator  "  Discontinued — Second  Visit  to 
England — Letter  to  Mrs.  Stowe.    -  ...  -  154 

CHAPTER  IV.— CHARLES  SUjVINER. 

Mr.  Sumner  an  instance  of  Free  State  High  Culture — The  "  Brahmin  Caste  " 
of  New  England — The  Sumner  Ancestry ;  a  Kentish  Family — Governor 
Increase  Sumner;  His  Revolutionary  Patriotism — His  Stately  Presence;  "A 
Governor  that  can  Walk" — Charles  Sumner's  Father — Mr.  Sumner's  Edu- 
cation, Legal  and  Literary  Studies — Tendency  to  Ideal  Perfection — Sumner 
and  the  Whigs — Abolitionism  Social  Death — Sumner's  Opposition  to  the 
Mexican  War — His  Peace  Principles — Sumner  Opposes  Slavery  Within  the 
Constitution,  as  Gamson  Outside  of  it — Anti-Slavery  and  the  Wliigs — The 
Political  Abolitionist  Platform — Webster  asked  in  vain  to  Ojipose  Slavery 
—  Sumner's  Rebuke  of  Winthrop — Joins  the  Free  Soil  Party — Succeeds 
Webster  in  the  Senate — Great  Speech  against  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law — The 
Constitution  a  Charter  of  Liberty — Slaveiy  not  in  the  Constitution — ^First 
Speech  after  the  Brooks  Assault — Consistency  as  to  Reconstruction.        -    214 

CHAPTER  v.— SALMON  P.  CHASE. 

England  and  our  Finances  in  the  War — President  Wheelock  and  Mr.  Chase's 
Seven  Uncles — His  Uncle  the  Bishop — His  Sense  of  Justice  at  College — His 
Uncle  the  Senator — Admitted  to  the  Bar  for  Cincinnati — His  First  Argu- 
ment before  a  U.S.  Court — Society  in  Cincinnati — The  Oliio  Abolitionists — 
Cincinnati  on  Slavery — The  Church  admits  Slavery  to  be  "  an  Evil " — Mr. 
Chase  and  the  Bimey  Mob — The  Case  of  the  Slave  Girl  Matilda — How 
Mr.  Chase  "Ruined  Himself" — He  Affirms  the  Sectionality  of  Slavery — 
The  Van  Zandt  Case — Extracts  from  Mr.  Chase's  Argument — Mr.  Chase 
in  Anti-Slavery  Politics — His  Qualifications  as  a  Financier.  -  -    241 

CHAPTER  VI.— HENRY    WILSON. 

Lincoln,  Chase  and  Wilson  as  Illustrations  of  Democracy — Wilson's  Birth 
and  Boyhood — Reads  over  One  Thousand  Books  in  Ten  Years — Learns 
Shoemaking — Earns  an  Education  Twice  Over — Forms  a  Debating  Society 
— Makes  Sixty  Speeches  for  Hamson — ^Enters  into  Political  Life  on  the 
Working-Men's  Side — Helps  to  foi-m  the  Free  Soil  Party — Chosen  United 
States  Senator  over  Edward  Everett — Aristocratic  Politics  in  those  Days — 
Wilson  and  the  Slaveholding  Senators — The  Character  of  his  Speaking — 
Full  of  Facts  and  Practical  Sense — His  Usefulness  as  Chainnan  of  the 
Military  Committee — His  "  History  of  the  Anti-Slavery  Measures  in  Con- 
gress"— The  37th  and  38th  Congresses — The  Summary  of  Anti-Slavery 
Legislation  fi-om  that  Book — Other  Abolitionist  Forces — Contrast  of  Senti- 
ments of  Slavery  and  of  Freedom — Recognition  of  Hayti  and  Liberia ; 
Specimen  of  the  Debate — Slave  and  Free  Doctrine  on  Education — Equality 
in  Washington  Street  Cars — Pro-Slavery  Good  Taste — Solon's  Ideal  of 
Democracy  Reached  in  America.    ---...    269 


CONTENTS.  XI 

CHAPTER  VII.— HOSACE    GREELEY. 

The  Scotch-Irish  Race  in  the  United  States — ilr.  Greeley  a  Partly  Reversed 
Specimen  of  it — His  Birth  and  Boyhood — Learns  to  Read  Books  Upside 
Down — His  Apprenticeship  on  a  Newspaper — The  Town  Encyclopedia — 
His  Industry  at  his  Trade — His  First  Experience  of  a  Fugitive  Slave  Chase 
His  First  Appearance  in  New  York — The  Work  on  the  Polyglot  Testament 
— ilr.  Greeley  as  "  The  Ghost"— The  First  Cheap  Daily  Paper— The  Firm 
of  Greeley  &  Story — The  New  Yorker,  the  JefFersonian  and  the  Log  Cabin 
— Mr.  Greeley  as  Editor  of  the  New  Yorker — Beginning  of  The  Tribune — 
Mr.  Greeley's  Theory  of  a  Political  Newspaper — His  Love  for  The  Tribune 
The  First  Week  of  that  Paper — The  Attack  of  the  Sun  and  its  Result — 
Mr.  McElrath's  Partnership — Mr.  Greeley's  Fourierism — "  The  Bloody 
Sixth — The  Cooper  Libel  Suits — Mr.  Greeley  in  Congress — He  Goes  to 
Europe — His  Course  in  the  Rebellion — His  Ambition  and  Qualifications  for 
Office — The  Kcy-Note  of  liis  Cliaractcr.     -  -  -  .  .    293 

CHAPTER  VIII.— DAVID  G.  FARRAGUT. 

The  Lesson  of  the  Rebellion  to  Monarclis — The  Strength  of  the  United  States 
— The  U.  S.  Naval  Service— The  Last  War— State  of  the  Navy  in  1861— 
Admiral  Farragut  Represents  the  Old  Navy  and  the  New — Charlemagne's 
Physician,  Farraguth — The  Admiral's  Letter  about  his  Family — His  Birth 
— His  Cruise  with  Porter  when  a  Boy  of  Nine — The  Destruction  of  the  Es- 
sex— ^Farragut  in  Peace  Times — Expected  to  go  with  the  South — Refuses, 
is  Tlu-eatcned,  and  goes  Norch — The  Opening  of  the  Mississippi — The  Bay 
Fight  at  Mobile — The  Admiral's  Healtli — FaiTagut  and  the  Tobacco  Bish- 
op. -»-------  -    311' 

CHAPTER  IX.— JOHN  A.  ANDREW. 

Governor  Andrew's  Death  Caused  by  the  War— The  Governors  Dr.  Beecher 
Prayed  for — Governor  Andrew  a  Christian  Governor — Gov.  Andrew's  Birth 
— He  goes  to  Boston  to  Study  Law — Not  Averse  to  unfashionable  and  Un- 
popular Causes — His  Cheerfulness  and  Social  Accompli^ments — His  Sun- 
day School  Work — Lives  Plainly — His  Clear  Foresight  of  the  War — Sends 
a  Thousand  Men  to  Washington  in  One  Day — The  Story  of  the  Blue 
Overcoats — Tlie  Telegram  for  the  Bodies  of  the  Dead  of  Baltimore — Gov. 
Andrew's  Tender  Care  for  the  Poor — The  British  Minister  and  the  Colored 
Women — The  Governor's  Kindness  to  the  Soldier's  Wife — His  Biblical 
Proclamations — The  Thanksgiving  Proclamation  of  1861 — Tiie  Proclama- 
tion of  1862 — His  Interest  in  the  Schools  for  the  Richmond  Poor — Cotton 
Mather's, Eulogy  on  Gov.  Winthrop — Gov.  Andrew's  Farewell  Address  to 
the  Massachusetts  Legislature — State  Gratitude  to  Gov.  Andrew's  Family.  325 

'     CHAPTER  X.— SCHUYLER  COLFAX. 
General  William  Colfax,  Washington's  Friend — Mr.  Colfax  his  Grandson — 
Mr  Colfax's  Birth  and  Boyhood — Removes  to  Indiana — Becomes  Deputy 
County  Auditor — Begins  to  Deal  with  Politics — Becomes  an  Editor — The 


Xll  CONTENTS. 

Period  of  Maximum  Debt — Mr.  Colfax's  First  Year — He  is  Burnt  Out — 
His  Subsequent  Success  as  an  Editor — His  Political  Career  as  a  Wliig — 
Joins  the  Republican  Party — Popularity  in  his  own  District — The  Nebraska 
Bill — Mr.  Colfax  goes  into  Congress — The  Famous  Contest  for  Speakership 
— Mr.  Colfax  Saves  his  Party  from  Defeat — Banks  Chosen  Speaker — Mr. 
Colfax's  Great  Speech  on  the  Bogus  Laws  of  Kansas — The  Ball  and  Chain 
for  Free  Speech — Mr.  Colfax  Shows  the  Ball,  and  A.  H.  Stephens  Holds 
it  for  him — Mr.  Colfax  Renominated  Unanimously — His  Remarkable  Suc- 
cess in  his  own  District — Useful  Labors  in  Post  Office  Committee — Early 
for  Lincoln  for  President — Mr.  Colfax  urged  for  Post  Master  General— His 
Usefulness  as  Speaker — The  Qualifications  for  that  Post — Mi.  Colfax's  Pub- 
lic Virtues.  ........    347 

CHAPTER  XI.— EDWm  M.  STANTON. 

Rebel  Advantages  at  Opening  of  the  War — They  Knew  all  about  the  Army 
OflBcers — Early  Contrast  of  Rebel  Enthusiasm  and  Union  Indifference — 
Importance  of  Mr.  Stanton's  Post — His  Birth  and  Ancestry — His  Educa- 
tion and  Law  Studies — County  Attorney — State  Reporter —Defends  Mr. 
McNulty — Removes  to  Pittsburg — His  Line  of  Business — The  Wheeling 
Case — He  Removes  to  Washington — His  Qualifications  as  a  Lawyer — He 
Enters  Buchanan's  Cabinet — His  Unexpected  Patriotism — His  Own  Ac- 
count of  the  Cabinet  at  News  of  Anderson's  Move  to  Sumter — The  Lion 
before  the  Old  Red  Dragon — Appointed  Secretary  of  War — "  Bricks  in  his 
•Pockets" — Stanton's  Habitual  Resen-e— His  Wrath — "  The  Angel  Gabriel 
as  Paj-master  " — Anecdotes  of  Lincoln's  Confidence  in  Stanton — Lincoln's 
Affection  for  liim — The  Burdens  of  his  Office — His  Ivindness  of  Heart 
within  a  Rough  Outside — The  Country  his  Debtor.  ...    353 

CHAPTER  XII.— FREDERICK  DOUGLASS. 

The  Opportunity  for  Every  Man  in  a  Republic — The  Depth  Below  a  White 
Man's  Poverty — The  Starting  Point  whence  Fred  Douglass  Raised  Himself 
— His  Mother — Her  Noble  Traits— Her  Self  Denial  for  the  sake  of  Seeing 
him— She  Defends  him  against  Aunt  Katy — Her  Death — Col.  Loyd's  Plant- 
ation— The  Luxury  of  his  own  Mansion — The  Organization  of  his  Estate 
— "  Old  Master  " — How  they  Punished  the  Women — How  Young  Douglass 
Philosophized  on  Being  a  Slave — Plantation  Life — The  Allowance  of  Food 
— The  Clothes — An  Average  Plantation  Day — Mr.  Douglass'  Experience 
as  a  Slave  Child— The  Slave  Children's  Trough— The  Slave  Child's 
Thoughts — The  Melancholy  of  Slave  Songs — He  Becomes  a  House  Ser- 
vant— A  Kind  Mistress  Teaches  him  to  Read — How  he  Completed  his  Ed- 
ucation— Effects  of  Learning  to  Read — Experiences  Religion  and  Prays  for 
Liberty — Learns  to  Write — Hires  liis  Time,  and  Absconds — Becomes  a 
Free  Working-Man  in  New  Bedford — Marries — Mr.  Douglass  on  GaiTison 
— Mr.  Douglass'  Literary  Career.  -.----    380 

CHAPTER  Xni.— PHILIP  H.  SHERIDAN. 
Sheridan   a  Full-BIooded   Irishman — The  Rimaway   Horse — Constitutional 
Fearlessness — Sheridan  Goes  to  West  Point — Sheridan's  Apprenticesliip  to 


CONTENTS.  XIU 

War — The  Fight  ^vith  the  Apaches  at  Fort  Duncan — He  is  Transferred  to 
Oregon — Commands  at  Fort  Yamhill  in  the  Yokima  Reservation — The 
Quarrel  among  the  Yokimas — Sheridan  Popular  with  Indians — He  Thinks 
he  has  a  Chance  to  be  Major  Some  Day — Sheridan's  Shyness  with  Ladies 
— He  Employs  a  Substitute  in  Waiting  on  a  Lady — Sheridan's  Ivindness 
and  Efficiency  in  Office  Work — He  Becomes  a  Colonel  of  Cavalry — His 
Shrewd  Defeat  of  Gen.  Chalmers — Becomes  Brigadier — The  Kentucky 
Campaign  against  Bragg — Sheridan  Saves  the  Battle  of  Perrysville — Saves 
the  Battle  of  Muifreesboro — Gen.  Rousseau  on  Sheridan's  Fighting — Sher- 
idan at  Missionary  Ridge — Joins  Grant  as  Chief  of  Cavalry — His  Raids 
around  Lee — His  Campaign  in  the  Valley  of  Virginia — He  Moves  Across 
and  Joins  in  the  Final  Operations — His  Administration  at  New  Orleans — 
Grant's  Opinion  of  Sheridan.         -.--..    405 

CHAPTER  XIV.— WILLLUI  T.  SHERMAN. 

The  Result  of  Eastern  Blood  and  Western  Developments — Lincoln,  Grant, 
Chase  and  Siierraan  Specimens  of  it — The  Sherman  Family  Character — 
Hon.  Thomas  Ewing  adopts  Sherman — Character  of  the  Boy — He  Enters 
West  Point — His  Peculiar  Traits  Showing  thus  Early — How  he  Treated 
his  "  Pleb  " — Ilis  Early  Militiiry  Service — His  Appearance  as  First  Liea- 
tenant — Manics  and  Resigns — Banker  at  San  Francisco — Superintendent 
of  Louisiana  Military  Academy — His  Noble  Letter  Resigning  the  Supcr- 
intendency — He  Foresees  a  Great  War — Cameron  and  Lincoln  Think  not 
— Sherman  at  Bull  Run — He  Goes  to  Kentucky — Wants  Two  Hundred 
Thousand  Troops — The  False  Report  of  his  Insanity — Joins  Grant ;  His 
Senices  at  Sliiloh — Services  in  the  Vicksburg  Campaigns — Endurance  of 
Sherman  and  his  Army — Sherman's  estimate  of  Grant — How  to  live  on  the 
Enemy — Prepares  to  move  from  Atlanta — The  Great  March — His  Courtesy 
to  the  Colored  People — His  Foresight  in  War — Sherman  on  Office-Holding.  423 

CHAPTER  XV.— 0LI\T:R  0.  HOWARD. 

Can  there  be  a  Christian  Soldier? — General  Howard's  Birth — His  Military 
Education — His  Life  Before  the  Rebellion — Resigns  in  Order  to  get  into 
the  Field — Made  Brigadier  for  Good  Conduct  at  Bull  Run — Commands 
the  Eleventh  Corps  and  Joins  the  Army  at  Chattanooga — His  Services  in 
the  Army  of  the  Potomac — Extren.2  Calmness  on  the  Field  of  Battle — 
SerA'ices  with  Sherman — Sherman's  hish  Opinion  of  him — Col.  Bowman's 
Admiration  of  Howard's  Christian  Obsen-ances — Patriotic  Services  while 
Invalided  at  Home — Reproves  the  Swearing  Teamster — Placed  over  the 
Freedmeb's  Bureau — The  Central  Historic  Fact  of  the  War — The  Rise  of 
Societies  to  Help  the  Freedmen — The  Work  of  the  Freedmen's  Bureau — 
Disadvantages  Encountered  by  it,  and  by  General  Howard — Results  of  the 
Bureau  thus  far — Col.  Bowman's  Description  of  Gen.  Howard's  Duties — 
Gten.  Sherman's  Letter  to  Gren.  Howard  on  Assuming  the  Pest — Estimate 
of  Gen.  Howard's  Abilities.  -  -  -  -  -  -    447 


Xiv  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  XVI.— WILLIAM  A.  BUCKINGHAM. 
The  Buckinghams  an  Original  Puritan  Family— Rev.  Thomas  Buckingham 
—Gov.  Buckingham's  Father  and  Mother— Lebanon,  the  Birthplace  of 
Five  Governors— Gov.  Buckingham's  Education — He  Teaches  School— His 
Natural  Executive  Tendency — His  Business  Career— His  Extreme  Punctu- 
ality in  Payments — His  Business  and  Religious  Character — His  Interest  in 
the  Chm-ches  and  Schools — His  Benefactions  in  those  Directions — His  Po- 
litical Course — He  Accepts  Municipal  but  not  Legislative  Offices — A  Mem- 
ber of  the  Peace  Conference — He  Himself  Equips  the  First  State  Militia  in 
the  War — His  Zealous  Co-operation  with  the  Government — Sends  Gen. 
Aiken  to  Washington: — The  Isolation  of  that  City  from  the  North — Gov. 
Buckingham's  PoUcy  for  the  War;  Letter  to  Mr.  Lincoln — His  Views  on 
Emancipation ;  Letter  to  Mr.  Lincoln — Anecdote  of  the  Temperance  Gov- 
ernor's Staff.  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -    463 

CHAPTER  XVII.— WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

Birth  and  Ancestry  of  Wendell  Phillips — His  Education  and  Social  Advan- 
tage— The  Lovejoy  Mm-der — Speech  in  Faneuil  Hall — The  Murder  Justified 
— Mr.  Phillips'  Fii'st  Speech — He  Defends  the  Liberty  of  the  Press — His 
Ideality — He  Joins  the  Garrisonian  Abolitionists — Gives  up  the  Law  and 

■  Becomes  a  Reformer — His  Method  and  Style  of  Oratory — Abolitionists 
Blamed  for  the  Boston  Mob — Heroism  of  the  Early  Abolitionists — His  Posi- 
tion in  Favor  of  "Woman's  Rights" — Anecdote  of  His  Lecturing— His 
Ser\'ices  in  the  Caiise  of  Temperance — Extract  from  His  Argument  on 
Prohibition — His  Severity  towards  Human  Nature — His  Course  During  and 
Since  the  War — A  Change  of  Tone  Recommended.         -  -  -    483 

CHAPTER  XAail.— HENRY  WARD  BEECHER. 

Mr.  Beecher  a  Younger  Child— Death  of  his  Mother— His  Step-Mother's 
Religious  Influence — Ma'am  lulbourn's  School — The  Passing  Bell — Un- 
profitable Schooling — An  Inveterate  School  Joker— Mastei's  the  Latin 
Grammar — Goes  to  Amlierst  College — His  Love  of  Flowers — Modes  of 
Study;  a  Reformer — Mr.  Beecher  and  the  Solemn  Tutor — His  Favorite 
Poetry — His  Introduction  to  Phrenology — His  Mental  Philosophy — Doc- 
trine of  Spiritual  Intuition — Punctuality  for  Joke's  Sake — Old  School  and 
New  School — Doubts  on  Entering  the  Ministry — Settlement  at  Lawrence- 
burg — His  Studies ;  First  Revival — Large  Accessions  to  the  Church — 
"Tropical  Style  "—Ministerial  Jokes— Slavery  in  the  Pulpit — The  Trans- 
fer to  Brooklyn — Plymouth  Church  Preaching — Visit  to  England — Speech- 
es in  England — Letters  from  England — Christian  View  of  England — The 
Exeter  HaU  Speech — Preaches  an  Unpopular  Forgiveness.  -  -    505 


i-'ng'byAHRi^'*'^'^ 


OHAPTEE   I. 

ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

The  Men  of  our  Time — Lincoln  Foremost — The  War  was  the  Working-Man's 
Revolution — Abraham  Liucolu's  Birth  and  Youth — The  Books  he  read — 
The  Thirty  Thousand  Dollars  for  Tender — The  Old  Stocking  of  Government 
Money — A  Just  Lawyer;  Anecdotes — His  First  Candidacy  and  Speech — 
Goes  to  Legislature  and  Congress — The  Seven  Debates  and  Campaign  against 
Douglas  in  1858 — Webster's  and  Lincoln's  Language  Compared — The  Cooper 
Institute  Speech — The  Nomination  at  Ciiicago — Moral  and  Piiysical  Courage 
— The  Backwoodsman  President  and  the  Diplomatists — Significance  of  his 
Presidential  Career — Religious  Feelings — Ilis  Kindness — "The  Baby  Did 
It " — The  First  Inaugural — The  Second  Inaugural,  and  other  State  Papers — 
The  Conspiracy  and  Assassination — The  Opinions  of  Foreign  Nations  on  Mr. 
Lincoln. 

Our  times  have  been  marked  from  all  other  times 
as  the  scene  of  an  immense  conflict  which  has  not 
only  shaken  to  its  foundation  our  own  country,  but- 
has  been  felt  like  the  throes  of  an  earthquake  through 
all  the  nations  of  the  earth. 

Our  own  days  have  witnessed  the  closing  of  the 
great  battle,  but  the  preparations  for  that  battle  have 
been  the  slow  work  of  years. 

The  "Men  of  Our  Times,"  are  the  men  who  indi- 
rectly by  their  moral  influence  helped  to  bring  on  this 
great  final  crisis,  and  also  those  who,  when  it  was 
brought  on,  and  the  battle  was  set  in  array,  guided  it 
wisely,  and  helped  to  bring  it  to  its  triumphant  close. 

In  makijig  our  selection  we  find  men  of  widely  dif- 
ferent spheres  and  characters.  Pure  philanthropists, 
who,  ignoring  all   selfish  and  worldly  politics,  have 


12  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN. 

labored  against  oppression  and  wrong;  far-seeing 
statesmen,  who  could  foresee  the  working  of  political 
causes  from  distant  years ;  brave  naval  and  military 
men,  educated  in  the  schools  of  our  country ;  scientific 
men,  who  helped  to  perfect  the  material  forces  of  war 
by  their  discoveries  and  ingenuity — all  are  united  in 
one  great  crisis,  and  have  had  their  share  in  one  won- 
derful j)assage  of  the  world's  history. 

Foremost  on  the  roll  of  "men  of  our  time,"  it  is 
but  right  and  fitting  that  we  place  the  honored  and 
venerated  name  of  the  man  who  was  called  by  God's 
providence  to  be  the  leader  of  the  nation  in  our  late 
great  struggle,  and  to  seal  with  his  blood  the  procla- 
mation of  universal  liberty  in  this  country — the  name 
of 

ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

The  revolution  through  which  the  American  nation 
has  been  passing  was  not  a  mere  local  convulsion.  It 
was  a  war  for  a  principle  which  concerns  all  mankind. 
It  was  the  war  for  the  rights  of  the  working  class  of 
society  as  against  the  usurpation  of  privileged  aristoc- 
racies. You  can  make  nothing  else  of  it.  That  is 
the  reason  why,  like  a  shaft  of  light  in  the  judgment 
day,  it  has  gone  through  all  nations,  dividing  the  mul- 
titudes to  the  right  and  the  left.  For  us  and  our 
cause,  all  the  common  working  classes  of  Europe — all 
that  toil  and  sweat,  and  are  oppressed.  Against  us, 
all  privileged  classes,  nobles,  princes,  bankers  and 
great  manufacturers,  all  who  live  at  ease.  A  silent 
instinct,  piercing  to  the  dividing  of  soul  and  spirit, 
joints  and  marrow,  has  gone  through  the  earth,  and 
sent  every  soul  with  instinctive  certainty  where  it  be- 


working-men's  revolution.  13 

longs.  Tlie  poor  laborers  of  Birmingham  and  Man- 
chester, the  poor  silk  weavers  of  Lyons,  to  whom  our 
conflict  has  been  present  starvation  and  lingering 
death,  have  stood  bravely  for  us.  No  sophistries 
could  blind  or  deceive  tliem  ;  they  knew  that  our  cause 
w^as  tlieir  cause,  and  they  suffered  their  part  heroically, 
as  if  fighting  by  our  side,  because  they  knew  that  our 
victory  was  to  be  their  victory.  On  the  other  side, 
all  aristocrats  and  holders  of  exclusive  privileges  have 
felt  the  instinct  of  opposition,  and  the  sympathy  with 
a  struggling  aristocracy,  for  they,  too,  felt  that  our 
victory  would  be  their  doom. 

This  great  contest  has  visibly  been  held  in  the  hands 
of  Almighty  God,  and  is  a  fulfillment  of  the  solemn 
prophecies  with  which  the  Bible  is  sown  thick  as  stars, 
that  He  would  spare  the  soul  of  the  needy,  and  judge 
the  cause  of  the  poor.  It  was  He  who  chose  the  in- 
strument for  this  work,  and  He  chose  him  with  a  visi- 
ble reference  to  the  rights  and  interests  of  the  great 
majority  of  mankind,  for  which  he  stood. 

Abraham  Lincoln  was  in  the  strictest  sense  a  man 
of  the  working  classes.  All  his  advantages  and  abili- 
ties were  those  of  a  man  of  the  working  classes,  all 
his  disadvantages  and  disabilities  those  of  the  working 
classes,  and  his  position  at  the  head  of  one  of  the  most 
powerful  nations  of  the  earth  was  a  sign  to  all  who 
live  by  labor,  that  their  day  is  coming.  Lincoln  was 
born  to  the  inheritance  of  hard  work,  as  truly  as  the 
poorest  laborer's  son  that  digs  in  our  fields.  He  was 
born  in  Kentucky,  in  1809.  At  seven  years  of  age  he 
was  set  to  work,  axe  in  hand,  to  clear  up. a  farm  in  a 
Western  forest.  Until  he  was  seventeen  his  life  was 
that  of  a  simple  farm  laborer,  with  only  such  intervals 

2 


14  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN. 

of  schooling  as  farm  laborers  get.     Probably  the  school 
instruction  of  his  whole  life  would  not  amount  to  more 
than  six  months.     At  nineteen  he  made  a  trip  to  New 
Orleans  as  a  hired  hand  on  a  flat-boat,  and  on  his  re- 
turn he  split  the  timber  for  a  log  cabin  and  built  it,  and 
enclosed  ten  acres  of  land  with  a  rail  fence  of  his  own 
handiwork.       The   next   year   he   hired   himself   for 
twelve  dollars  a  month  to  build  a  flat-boat  and  take 
her  to  New  Orleans,  and  any  one  who  knows  what 
the  life  of  a  Mississippi  boatman  was  in  those  days, 
must  know  that  it  involved  every  kind  of  labor.     In 
1832,  in  the  Black  Hawk  Indian  war,  the  hardy  boatman 
volunteered  to  fight  for  his  country,  and  was  unani- 
mously elected  a  captain,  and  served  with  honor  for  a 
season  in  frontier  military  life.     He  was  very  popular 
with  his  soldiers  for  two  reasons ;  the  first  was  his  great 
physical  strength ;  the  second,  that  he  could  tell  more 
and  better  stories  than  any  other  man  in  the  army. 
Odd  constituents  for  a  commander's  character;  but 
like  everything  else  in  Lincoln's  life,  the  fact  shows 
how  wonderfully  he  represented,  and  therefore  suited, 
the  people.     Some  time  after  the  war,  the  surveyor 
of  Sangamon  county,  being  driven  with  work,  came 
to  him  to  take  the  survey  of  a  tract  off  from  his  hands. 
True,  he  had  never  studied  surveying,   but  what  of 
that  ?     He  accepted  the  job,  procured  a  chain  and  a 
treatise  on  surveying,  and  did  the  luorh.     Do  we  not 
see  in  this  a  parallel  of  the  wider  wilderness  which  in 
later  years  he  was  to  undertake  to  survey  and  fit  for 
human  habitation,  luithout  chart  or  surveyor's  chain? 
After  this,  while  serving  as  a  postmaster,  he  began 
Iiis  law  studies.     He  took  the  postmastership  for  the 


THE    BOOKS   HE    READ.  15 

sake  of  reading  all  the  papers  that  came  into  the  toT^n, 
at  the  same  time  borrowing  the  law  books  he  was  too 
poor  to  buy,  and  studying  by  the  light  of  his  evening 
fire.  He  soon  acquired  a  name  in  the  country  about  as 
a  man  of  resources  and  shrewdness.  He  was  one  that 
people  looked  to  for  counsel  in  exigencies,  and  to 
whom  they  were  ready  to  depute  almost  any  enter- 
prise which  needed  skill  and  energy,  or  patience  and 
justice.  "He  was  in  great  request,"  says  one  of  his 
biographers,  "by  thick-headed  people,  because  of  his 
clearness  and  skill  in  narration."  It  might  well  have 
been  added,  because  also  of  his  kindness,  patience  and 
perfect  justness  of  nature  in  listening,  apprehending 
and  stating. 

Mr.  Lincoln  was  now  about  twenty-three.  His  life 
thus  far  may  perhaps  be  considered  as  his  education ; 
at  any  rate,  it  is  the  part  of  his  life  which  answers  to 
the  school  years,  college  course,  and  professional  stud- 
ies of  a  regularly  educated  lawyer  at  the  East.  It 
included,  of  actual  "schooling,"  only  the  six  months 
total  already  mentioned.  Even  then  it  was  his  mother 
who  had  taught  him  to  read  and  write.  Of  the  use  of 
books  of  any  kind,  this  backwoods  graduate  had  little 
enough.  His  course  of  reading  was  a  very  thorough 
illustration  of  the  ancient  rule  to  "read  not  many  but 
much."  He  read  seven  books  over  and  over.  Of 
three  of  them,  the  Bible,  Shakspeare  and  ^sop's  Fa- 
bles, he  could  repeat  large  portions  by  heart.  The 
other  four  were  the  Pilgrim's  Progress,  the  Life  of 
Washington,  the  Life  of  Franklin,  and  the  Life  of 
Henry  Clay.  It  is  a  curious  fact  that  neither  then  nor 
afterwards  did  he  ever  read  a  novel.     He  began  Ivan- 


16  .      ABRAHAM     LINCOLN. 

hoe  once,  but  was  not  interested  enough  to  finish  it. 
He  was  one  of  those  men  who  have  the  peculiar  fac- 
ulty of  viewing  this  whole  world  of  men  and  things 
as  a  side  spectator,  and  the  interest  of  the  drama  of 
life  thus  silently  seen  at  first  hand,  was  to  him  infinite- 
ly more  interesting  than  any  second  hand  imitation. 
"My  life  is  story  enough,"  once  said  a  person  of  this 
peculiar  temperament,  "what  should  I  want  to  read 
stories  for?"  The  interest  he  felt  in  human  beings 
was  infinitely  stronger  with  him  than  the  interest  in 
artistic  representation. 

One  of  his  biographers  says  that  he  "  seldom  bought 
a  new  book,  and  seldom  read  one,"  and  he  adds,  with 
a  good  deal  of  truth,  that  "his  education  was  almost 
entirely  a  newspaper  one,"  and  that  he  "was  one  of 
the  most  thorough  newspaper  readers  in  America." 

But  that  which  was  much  more  the  real  essence  of 
his  self-education,  was  the  never-ceasing  and  strenuous 
course  of  laborious  thought  and  reasoning  that  he 
kept  up,  upon  the  meaning,  the  connection,  the  ten- 
dency, the  right  and  wrong,  the  helps  or  remedies,  of 
all  the  past  facts  he  read  of,  or  of  the  present  facts 
that  he  experienced  in  life.  And  this  education  he 
not  only  began  early  and  pursued  effectively,  but  he 
never  ceased  it.  All  his  life  he  maintained  that  course 
of  steady  labor  after  practical  knowledge  and  practi- 
cal wisdom.  Whenever  he  could  read  a  good  book 
he  did,  and  his  practice  for  a  long  time  was,  after  hav- 
ing finished  it,  to  write  out  an  analysis  of  it ;  a  very 
fatiguing  but  very  improving  process.  One  of  his 
companions  while  a  young  "hired  man,"  described 
him  in  after  years,  as  "  the  likeliest  boy  in  God's  world. 


HIS   LANGUAGE.  17 

He  would  work  all  day  as  hard  as  any  of  us,  and  study 
by  fire-light  in  the  log  house  half  the  night,  and  in  this 
way  he  made  himself  a  thorough  practical  surveyor." 
Another  man  described  him  as  he  saw  him  while  work- 
ing for  a  living,  in  1830,  or  thereabouts,  "lying  on  a 
trundle-bed,  with  one  leg  stretched  out  rocking  the  cra- 
dle containing  the  child  of  his  hostess,  while  he  himself 
was  absorbed  in  the  study  of  English  grammar." 

The  world  has-  many  losses  that  mankind  are  not 
conscious  of  Tbe  burning  of  the  Alexandrian  library 
was  an  irreparable  loss,  but  a  greater  loss  is  in  the  si- 
lence of  great  and  peculiar  minds.  Had  there  been 
any  record  of  what  Lincoln  thought  and  said  while  he 
thus  hewed  his  way  through  the  pedantic  mazes  of 
book  learning,  we  might  have  some  of  the  newest,  the 
strangest,  the,  most  original  contributions  to  the  phi- 
losophy of  grammar  and  human  language  in  general 
that  ever  have  been  given.  They  would  have  savored 
very  much  of  Beethoven's  answer  when  the  critics 
asked  him  why  he  would  use  consecutive  octaves  in 
music.  "Because  they  sounded  well,"  said  the  scorn- 
ful old  autocrat ;  and  Lincoln's  quiet  perseverance  in  a 
style  of  using  the  English  language  peculiarly  his  own 
had  something  of  the  same  pertinacity.  He  seemed 
equally  amused  by  the  critical  rules  of  rhetoric,  and 
as  benevolently  and  patarnally  indulgent  to  the  mass 
of  eager  scholars  "who  thought  them  important,  as  he 
was  to  the  turbulent  baby  whom  he  rocked  with  one 
leg  while  he  pursued  his  grammatical  studies.  But 
after  his- own  quaint,  silent  fashion,  he  kept  up  his  in- 
quiries into  the  world  of  book  learning  with  remark- 
able perseverance,  and  his  friend  and  biographer,  Mr. 


18  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN. 

Arnold,  says,  became  "thoroughly  at  home  in  all  the 
liberal  studies  and  scientific  questions  of  the  day." 
This  is  rather  strongly  put,  and  we  fancy  that  Lincoln 
would  have  smiled  shrewdly  over  it,  but  the  specifica- 
tions which  Mr.  Arnold  adds  are  undoubtedly  true. 
Mr.  Lincoln  "had  mastered  English,  and  made  some 
progress  in  Latin,  and  knew  the  Bible  more  thoroughly 
than  many  who  have  spent  their  lives  in  its  perusal." 

But  what  book  learning  he  obtained  would  never 
have  made  him  a  lawyer,  not  to  sap  President.  The 
education  which  gave  him  his  success  in  life  was  his 
self-training  in  the  ability  to  understand  and  to  state 
facts  and  principles  about  men  and  things. 

In  1836  our  backwoodsman,  flat-boat  hand,  captain, 
surveyor,  obtained  a  license  to  practice  law,  and  as 
might  be  expected,  rose  rapidly.  One  ^anecdote  will 
show  the  esteem  in  which  he  was  held  in  his  neigh- 
borhood. A  client  came  to  him  in  a  case  relatinc:  to 
a  certain  land  claim,  and  Lincoln  said  to  him,  "Your 
first  step  must  be  to  take  thirty  thousand  dollars  and 
g9  and  make  a  legal  tender ;  it  of  course  will  be  re- 
fused, but  it  is  a  necessary  step."  "But,"  said  the 
man,  "I  haven't  the  thirty  thousand  dollars  to  make 
it  with."  "0,  that's  it;  just  step  over  to  the  bank 
with  me,  and  I'll  get  it."  So  into  the  bank  they  went, 
and  Lincoln  says  to  the  cashier,  "We  just  want  to 
take  thirty  thousand  dollars  to  make  a  legal  tender 
with;  I'll  bring  it  back  in  an  hour  or  two."  The 
cashier  handed  across  the  money  to  "Honest  Abe," 
and  without  a  scratch  of  the  pen  in  acknowledgment, 
he  strode  his  way  with  the  money,  all  in  the  most  sa- 
cred simplicity,  made  the  tender,  and  brought  it  hf>oV 


THE    STOCKING    OF    MONEY.  19 

with  as  mucli  nonclialance  as  if  he  had  been  borrow- 
ing a  silver  spoon  of  his  grandmother. 

It  was  after  he  had  been  practicing  law  some  time, 
that  another  incident  took  place,  showing  him  as  cu- 
riously scrupulous  about  small  sums  as  he  was  trusty 
and  trusted  about  large  ones.  When  he  left  New  Sa- 
lem and  went  to  Springfield,  he  was  still  so  poor  that 
he  even  found  it  difhcult  to  procure  the  necessaries  of 
life.  For  some  years  he  struggled  forward,  when  one 
day  there  came  a  post-office  agent,  who  in  pursuance 
of  the  routine  business  of  the  department,  presented 
to  the  almost  penniless  and  still  struggling  ex-post- 
master a  regulation  draft  for  the  balance  due  to  the 
Washington  office,  in  all  $17.60.  Dr.  Henry,  a  friend 
of  Mr.  Lincoln's,  happening  to  fall  in  with  the  agent, 
went  along  with  him,  intending  to  offer  to  lend  the 
money,  as  it  was  about  certain  that  he  could  have  no 
such  sum  as  that  at  his  command.  When  the  draft 
was  presented,  Lincoln  asked, the  officer  to  be  seated, 
sat  down  himself- a  few  moments,  looking  puzzled; 
then  asked  to  be  excused  for  a  little,  stepped  out  to 
his  boarding  house  and  returned.  He  brought  with 
him  an  old  stocking,  untied  it,  and  poured  out  on  the 
table  a  Quantity  of  small  silver  coin  and  "red  cents." 
These  they  counted;  they  amounted  to  $17.60,  the  pre- 
cise amount  called  for  by  the  draft.  More  than  that — it 
was  the  very  money  called  for  by  the  draft,  for  at  leav- 
ing his  postmastership,  the  punctilious  officer  had  tied 
up  the  balance  on  hand,  and  kept  it  by  him,  awaiting 
the  legal  call  for  it.  At  paying  it  over,  he  remarked 
that  he  never  used^  even  temporarily^  any  money  that 
was  not  his.     This  money,  he  added,  he  felt  belonged 


20  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN. 

to  the  government,  and  he  had  no  right  to  exchange 
or  use  it  for  any  purposes  of  his  own. 

His  honesty,  shrewdness,  energy  and  keen  practical 
insight  into  men  and  things  soon  made  him  the  most 
influential  man  in  his  state,  both  as  lawyer  and  poli- 
tician. Of  this  influence,  and  most  especially  of  its 
depending  upon  his  wonderfully  direct  plain  common 
se'nse,  and  the  absolute  honesty  and  utter  justness  of 
his  mind,  there  are  many  anecdotes.  In  politics  and 
in  law  alike,  both  the  strength  of  his  conscientiousness 
and  the  kind  of  yearning  after  a  rounded  wholeness 
of  view  which  was  an  intellectual  instinct  with  him, 
forced  him  habitually  to  consider  all  sides  of  any  qr.es- 
tion.  "  For  fifteen  years  before  his  election  to  the 
Presidency,"  says  one  writer,  in  striking  illustration  of 
this  habit  in  politics,  "he  subscribed  regularly  to 
The  JRichmond  Enquirer  and  The  Charleston  Mercury. 
He  grew  slowly,  as  public  opinion  grew;  and  as  an 
anti-slavery  man,  was  a  gradual  convert."  Thus  it  re- 
sulted that  "while  PJiett  and  Wise,  with  slavery  in 
full  feather,  wrote  every  day  the  inviolateness  of  se- 
cession and  the  divinity  of  bondage,  these  two  Illinois 
lawyers,  (Lincoln  and  his  partner,  Herndon,)  in  their 
little  square  office,  read  every  vaunting  cruel  word, 
paid  to  read  it,  and  educated  themselves  out  of  their 
mutual  indignations." 

In  like  manner  he  was  fair  and  impartial  in  legal 
investigations.  "  The  jury"  says  one  account,  "always 
got  from  him  a  fair  statement  of  any  case  in  hand, 
and  years  later  it  was  remarked  by  the  Chief  Justice 
of  Illinois  that  when  Lincoln  spoke,  he  argued  both 


A   JUST    LAWYER.  21 

sides  of  tlie  case  so  well  that  a  speech  in  response  was 
always  superfluous." 

Mr.  Lincoln's  fellow  lawyers  used  to  say  that  he  was 
in  professional  matters,  "  perversely  honest."  He 
could  not  take  hold  heartily  on  the  wrong  side.  He 
never  engaged  in  it,  knowingly  ;  if  a  man  desired  to  re- 
tain him  whose  cause  was  bad,  he  declined,  and  told  the 
applicant  not  to  go  to  law.  A  lady  once  came  to  him 
to  have  him  prosecute  a  claim  to  some  land,  and  gave 
him  the  papers  in  the  case  for  examination,  together 
with  a  retainer  in  the  shape  of  a  check  for  two  hun- 
dred dollars.  Next  day  she  came  to  see  what  her 
prospects  were,  when  Mr.  Lincoln  told  her  that  he  had 
examined  the  documents  very  carefully,  that  she  "  had 
not  a  peg  to  hang  her  claim  on,"  and  that  he  could 
not  conscientiously  advise  her  to  bring  an  action. 
Having  heard  this  judgment,  the  lady  thanked  him, 
took  het  papers,  and  was  about  to  depart.  "  Wait  a 
moment,  "said  Mr.  Lincoln,  "here  is  the  check  you  gave 
me."  "  But,"  said  she,  "Mr.  Lincoln,  I  think  you  have 
earned  tJiaV  "  No,  no,"  he  answered,  insisting  on 
her  receiving  it,  "  that  would  not  be  right.  I  can't 
take  pay  for  doing  my  duty." 

He  was  quite  as  prompt  and  just  in  accepting  un- 
profitable duty  as  in  declining  its  profitable  opposite. 
During  all  the  early  part  of  his  legal  practice  in  Spring- 
field, it  was  considered  an  unpopular  and  politically 
dangerous  business  for  a  lawyer  to  defend  any  fugitive 
slave  on  trial  for  surrender  to  the  South,  and  even  the 
brave  Col-  Baker,  in  those  days  also  practicing  there, 
on  one  occasion  directly  refused  to  defend  such  a  case, 
saying  that  as  a  political  man  he  could  not  afford  it. 


22  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

But  the  luckless  applicant,  having  consulted  with  an 
abolitionist  friend,  went  next  to  Lincoln,  and  got 
him.  "  Hes  not  afraid  of  an  unpopular  case,"  said  the 
friend  ;  "  when  I  go  for  a  lawyer  to  defend  an  arrest- 
ed fugitive  slave,  other  lawyers  will  refuse  me  ;  but  if 
Mr.  Lincoln  is  at  home,  he  will  always  take  up  my 
case." 

On  a  few  occasions  after  having  even  entered  into 
the  trial  of  a  case,  Mr.  Lincoln  would  find  that,  as 
sometimes  happens,  he  had  been  deceived  by  his  own 
client,  and  that  he  really  had  not  the  right  on  his  side. 
When  this  was  the  case,  he  could  as  it  were  be  seen 
to  wilt  at  once,  and  whatever  further  he  might  do  in 
the  case  was  only  mechanical.  In  such  a  case,  having 
an  associate,  and  having  refused  to  argue  it,  the  asso- 
ciate argued  the  case  and  won  it^  and  then  offered  to 
divide  with  Mr.  Lincoln  the  fee  of  $900  ;  but  Lincoln 
would  not  take  a  cent.  Once  in  defending  a  man 
sued  for  delivering  lambs  instead  of  sheep,  the  testi- 
mony clearly  showed  that  such  delivery  had  been 
made.  Instead  of  trying  to  confuse  the  witnesses  or 
becloud  the  evidence,  Mr.  Lincoln  ascertained  how 
many  such  lambs  had  been  delivered,  and  quietly  told 
the  jury  that  they  must  give  a  verdict  against  his 
client.  He  simply  cautioned  them  to  be  just  in  fixing 
the  damages.  When  he  had  recovered  a  verdict 
against  a  railroad  company,  and  a  certain  offset  against 
his  client  was  to  be  deducted,  he  interrupted  the  final 
decision  just  in  time  to  have  the  offset  made  larger  by 
a  certain  amount  which  he  had  just  found  out  ought 
to  be  added  to  it.  His  careful  and  primitive  scrupu- 
lousness was  just  as  marked  in  dealing  with  any  asso- 


THE    ARMSTRONG    CASE.  23 

dates  in  a  case.  When  he  received  a  joint  fee  his  inva- 
riable custom  was  to  divide  it  properly,  and  tie  up  in  a 
separate  parcel  each  associate's  part  of  the  very  money 
received^  duly  labelled  and  directed. 

In  1841  Mr.  Lincoln  argued  before  the  Supreme 
Court  of  Illinois,  the  case  of  Nance,  a  negro  girl,  who 
had  been  sold  within  the  state.  A  note  had  been  given 
in  payment  for  her,  and  the  suit  was  brought  to  re- 
cover upon  this  note.  Mr.  Lincoln,  defending,  proved 
that  Nance  was  free,  and  that  thus  nothing  had  been 
sold ;  so  that  the  note  was  void.  The  Court  below 
had  sustained  the  note,  but  the  Supreme  Court,  in 
accordance  with  Mr.  Lincoln's  argument,  reversed  this 
judgment.  The  decision  made  Nance  free,  and  put  a 
stop  to  sales  of  human  beings  in  Illinois. 

Another  remarkable  case  in  which  he  was  engaged, 
was,  the  defence  of  young  Armstrong  from  a  charge 
of  murder.  This  Armstrong  was  the  son  of  a  man 
who  had  befriended  and  employed  Mr.  Lincoln  in 
youth,  and  the  present  charge  was,  that  he  had  killed 
a  certain  person  who  had  unquestionably  died  from  in- 
juries received  in  a  camp-meeting  riot  where  young 
Armstrong  was  present.  The  father  was  dead,  and 
the  mother  aged  and  poor  ;  a  chain  of  apparently  per- 
fectly conclusive  circumstantial  evidence  had  been 
forged,  which  had  convinced  the  community  of  Arm- 
strong's guilt ;  indeed,  had  he  not  been  safely  secured 
in  a  strong  jail  he  would  have  been  lynched.  Neither 
the  youth  nor  his  old  mother  had  any  money.  The 
people  and  the  newspapers  were  furious  against  the 
prisoner;  and  his  fate  appeared  absolutely  certain  even 
to  himself,  when  Mr.  Lincoln,   hearing  of  the  matter 


24  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

ill  some  way,  volunteered  for  tlie  defence,  and  was 
gladly  accepted.  When  the  trial  came  on,  the  evi- 
dence for  the  prosecution  was  given,  and  constituted 
what  appeared  to  the  audience  a  perfectly  conclusive 
proof  of  guilt.  Lincoln  cross-examined  very  lightly, 
only  correcting  up  and  ascertaining  a  few  places  and 
dates ;  and  his  own  witnesses  were  only  to  show  com- 
paratively good  previous  character  for  the  prisoner. 

The  prosecutor,  sure  of  his  prey,  made  only  a  short 
and  formal  argument.  Mr.  Lincoln  followed  for  the 
defence.  He  began  slowly,  calmly,  carefully.  He 
took  hold  of  the  heart  of  the  evidence  for  the  state — 
that  of  the  chief  witness.  He  pointed  out  first  one 
discrepancy,  and  then  another,  and  then  another.  He 
came  at  last  to  that  part  of  the  evidence  where  this 
principal  witness  had  sworn  positively  that  he  had 
been  enabled  by  the  light  of  the  moon  to  see  the 
prisoner  give  the  fatal  blow  with  a  slung  shot ;  and 
taking  up  the  almanac  he  showed  that  at  the  hour 
sworn  to  on  the  night  sworn  to  the  moon  had  not  risen  y 
that  the  whole  of  this  evidence  was  a  perjury. 

The  audience,  gradually  stirred  and  changed  in  the 
temper  of  their  minds  by  the  previous  series  of  skil- 
fully displayed  inconsistencies,  rising  from  hate  into 
sympathy,  flamed  suddenly  up  at  this  startling  rev- 
elation, and  the  verdict  of  "not  guilty"  was  almost 
visible  in  the  faces  of  the  jury.  But  this  was  not  all. 
Turning  upon  the  infamous  man  who  had  sought  to 
swear  away  another  s  life,  Mr.  Lincoln,  now  fully  kin- 
dled into  his  peculiarly  slow  but  intensely  fiery  wrath, 
held  him  up  to  the  view  of  court  and  jury  and  audi- 
ence, in  such  a  horrid  picture  of  guilt  and  shame  that 


THE    TWO    LARGE    FEES.  25 

the  miserable  fellow,  stunned  and  confounded,  actu- 
ally fled  from  the  face  of  the  incensed  lawyer  out  of 
the  court  room.     And  in  conclusion,  Mr.  Lincoln  ap- 
pealed to  the  jury  to  lay  aside  any  temporary  preju- 
dices, and  to  do  simple  justice.     And  he  referred  to 
the  motive  of  his  own  presence  there, — to  his  grati- 
tude for  the  kindness  of  the  prisoner's  father  in  past 
years,  in  a  manner  so  affecting  as  to  bring  tears  from 
many  eyes.     In  less  than  half  an  hour  the  jury  re- 
turned a  verdict  of  not  guilty,   and  the  young  man 
was  set  free,  his  life  saved  and  his  character  restored. 
When  he  went  for  the  second  time  into  public  life, 
on  the  passage  of  the  Nebraska  Bill  in  1854,  he  was 
becoming  eminent  in  the  difficult  and  lucrative  de- 
partment of  patent  law.     But  his  fellow  lawyers  used 
to  call  his  fees  "ridiculously  small."     Indeed,  he  never 
took  but  one  large  fee,  and  that  his  friends  insisted  on 
his  taking.     This  was  $5,000  from  the  Illinois  Central 
Railroad  Company,  one  of  the  richest  corporations  in 
the  country,  and  for  very  valuable  services  in  a  very 
important  case.     Once  before  this  he  had  received 
what  he  thought  a  large  fee,  and  he  made  a  good  use 
of  it.     The  sum  was  five  hundred  dollars,  and  a  friend 
who  called  to  see  him  the  next  morning,  found  him 
counting  it  over  and  over,  and  piling  it  up  on  the  table 
to  look  at.      "Look  here,''  he  said,  "see  what  a  heap  of 

money  I've  got  from  the case !     Did  you  ever 

see  anything  like  it !  Why,  I  never  had  so  much 
money  in  my  life  before,  put  it  all  together!"  Then 
he  added,' that  if  he  could  only  get  another  $250  to 
put  with  it,  he  would  at  once  buy  a  quarter-section  of 
land,  and  settle  it  on  his  old  step-mother.     This  was 


20  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN. 

an  odd  use  to  make  of  a  man's  first  important  gains 
in  money,  and  liis  friend,  who  at  once  loaned  him  the 
required  additional  amount,  tried  to  make  him  give 
the  land  for  the  old  lady's  life  only.  But  Lincoln  in- 
sisted on  his  own  plan,  saying,  "I  shall  do  no  such 
thing.  It  is  a  poor  return  at  the  best,  for  all  the  good 
woman's  devotion  and  fidelity  to  me,  and  there  isn't 
going  to  be  any  half-way  work  about  it." 

Mr.  Lincoln  was  a  great  favorite  at  the  bar,  his  good 
nature,  his  kindness,  and  his  unfailing  flow  of  stories, 
making  him  a  most  welcome  guest  on  every  circuit. 

He  never  took  technical  advantages,  but  on  the 
other  hand  often  showed  an  adversary  some  error  in 
matter  of  form,  and  suggested  to  him  how  to  cure  it. 
His  forensic  habits  were  excessively  simple,  but  very 
effective.  The  most  telling  of  all  of  them  was  to  he 
in  the  right;  for  when  juries  know  that  a  lawyer  ha- 
bitually refuses  to  be  on  the  wrong  side,  habitually 
breaks  down  if  on  that  side,  simply  from  conscious- 
ness of  the  fact,  and  habitually  makes  strong  and  clear 
arguments  if  on  the  right  side,  they  are  prepossessed 
in  favor  of  that  lawyer  before  he  says  a  word.  He 
did  not  make  speeches  to  the  jury,  he  talked  with 
them ;  often  in  warm  weather  taking  off  his  coat  for 
coolness,  selecting  some  intelligent  looking  juryman, 
reasoning  with  him  until  convinced,  then  taking 
another,  and  so  on.  He  did  not  browbeat  witnesses,  but 
kept  them  comfortable  and  good  humored.  In  short, 
Mr.  Lincoln  was  decidedly  and  deservedly  a  powerful 
as  well  as  a  successful  lawyer.  He  must  have  been  of 
great  professional  powers  to  maintain  himself,  and  rise 
to  the  leadership  of  the  bar,  with  the  competitors  he 


FIRST    CANDIDACY   AXD    SPEECH.  27 

had.  Among  these  were  Mr.  Douglas,  Secretary 
Browning,  Senator  Trumbull,  Governor  Yates,  Judge 
Davis  of  the  U.  S.  Supreme  Court,  Col.  Baker,  Gen. 
Hardin,  Gov.  Bissell,  Gen.  Shields,  Senator  Washburn, 
N.  B.  Judd,  Gen.  Logan,  and  others.  lie  became  recog- 
nized by  his  fellow-citizens  as  "the  first  lawyer  in  Illi- 
nois," and  one  of  the  judges  on  the  bench  described 
him  as  "the  finest  lawyer  he  ever  knew,"  and  another 
as  "one  of  the  ablest  he  had  ever  known." 

Like  so  many  of  his  profession,  Mr.  Lincoln  was 
very  early  a  politician.  Indeed,  his  devotion  to  poli- 
tics interfered  very  considerably  with  his  gains,  and 
delayed  his  eminence  in  his  profession.  The  value  to 
his  fellow-countrymen  of  the  political  results  which  he 
was  the  means  of  bringing  to  pass,  is,  however,  so  in- 
finitely beyond  any  money  value,  that  no  regret  can 
be  felt  at  his  ambition. 

Mr.  Lincoln's  popularity  among  his  neighbors,  his 
assiduous  study  of  the  newspapers,  his  intense  and 
untiring  meditations  and  reasonings  on  the  political 
questions  of  the  day,  brought  him  into  the  political 
field  pretty  early  and  pretty  well  prepared.  It  was 
in  1832,  when  he  was  twenty-three  years  old,  that  his 
first  candidacy  and  his  first  speech  took  place.  The 
story  and  speech  all  together  are  so  short  that  they 
can  be  inserted  here  in  full.  On  the  day  of  election, 
then,  Mr.  Lincoln's  opponent  spoke  first,  and  delivered 
a  long  harangue  of  the  regular  political  sort.  Lin- 
coln, who  followed  him,  completed  his  oration  in  just 
seventy-niffe  words — less  than  one  minute's  talking. 
This  is  what  he  said :  "  Gentlemen,  fellow  citizens : — • 
I  presume  you  know  who  I  am ;  I  am  humble  Abra- 


28  ABRAHAM    LIXCOLN. 

ham  Lincoln.  1  have  been  solicited  by  many  friends 
to  become  a  candidate  for  the  Legislature.  My  poli- 
tics can  be  briefly  stated.  I  am  in  favor  of  a  national 
bank,  I  am  in  favor  of  the  internal  improvement  sys- 
tem, and  a  high  protective  tariff.  These  are  my  sen- 
timents and  political  principles.  If  elected  I  shall  be 
thankful,  if  not,  it  will  be  all  the  same." 

He  was  beaten,  however,  in  spite  of  his  terseness. 
But  in  his  own  district  he  received  all  but  seven  out 
of  284  votes;  and  he  was  never  beaten  again  in  any 
election  by  the  people. 

His  actual  political  career,  not  counting  this  defeat, 
began  in  1834,  when  he  was  chosen  member  of  the 
State  Legislature,  and  being  too  poor  to  afford  a  horse, 
walked  over  a  hundred  miles  to  Yandalia  to  take  his 
seat.  He  remained  a  member  for  four  successive 
terms  of  two  years  each.  Mr.  Douglas  became  a 
member  two  years  after  him,  in  1836;  the  two  men 
quickly  became  party  leaders  on  their  respective  sides 
of  the  house,  and  thus  their  political  courses  and  their 
political  rivalries  began  almost  together.  At  the 
two  latter  of  his  four  legislative  terms,  Mr.  Lincoln 
was  the  Whig  candidate  for  Speaker,  and  once  lacked 
only  one  vote  of  being  elected.  Mr.  Lincoln's  eight 
years'  service  in  the  State  Legislature  was  busy  and 
useful,  and  gave  him  an  assured  and  high  position  in 
his  party.  The  work  done  was  usually  of  a  local 
character,  of  course,  its  most  important  departments 
being  that  of  the  improvement  of  internal  communi- 
cation by  railroad  and  canal,  and  that  of  education. 

But  even  on  the  question  of  slavery,  the  one  signi- 
ficant occasion  for  utterance  which  arose  was  promptly 


COURSE    IX    LEGISLATURE.  29 

improved,  and  in  such  a  manner  as  to  show  both  the 
settled  feelings  and  convictions  of  Lincoln's  mind  on 
the  subject,  and  his  characteristic  practice  of  restrict- 
'  ing  his  official  utterances  strictly  to  the  exigencies  of 
the  case.  His  dislike  of  slavery  was  not  only  the  con- 
sequence of  his  inborn  sense  of  justice  and  kindly 
feelings,  but  was  his  direct  inheritance  from  his  pa- 
rents, who  left  Kentucky  and  settled  in  Indiana  ex- 
pressly to  bring  up  their  family  on  free  instead  of 
slave  soil.  In  March,  1839,  some  strong  pro-slavery 
resolutions  were  passed  by  the  Legislature  of  Illinois, 
and  by  large  majorities  in  both  houses.  This,  the  few 
anti-slavery  members  could  not  prevent.  But  Mr. 
Lincoln  and  Mr.  Dan  Stone  took  the  most  decided 
stand  in  their  power  on  the  other  side,  by  putting  on 
record  on  the  House  journals  a  formal  protest  against 
the  resolutions.  In  this  protest,  they  declared  views 
that  would  to-day  be  considered  very  conservative, 
about  legal  or  political  interference  with  slavery ;  but 
they  also  declared  in  the  most  unqualified  manner,  and 
in  so  many  words,  their  belief  "that  the  institution  of 
slavery  is  founded  on  both  injustice  and  bad  policy." 
At  the  end  of  his  fourth  term,  Mr.  Lincoln  declined 
a  further  nomination,  finding  it  absolutely  necessary 
to  devote  more  time  than  hitherto  to  his  own  private 
affairs.  When  he  thus  left  the  Legislature  of  his  own 
accord,  he  was  virtually  the  leader  of  his  party  in  the 
State,  having  reached  that  creditable  and  influential 
though  unofficial  position  by  his  own  good  qualities, 
in  the  eight  years  of  his  life  ending  with  his  thirty- 
fifth.     It  was  a  great  achievement  for  a  mim  no  older, 

and  so  destitute  of  outside  help. 
3 


30  ABRAHAM    LINCOLX. 

For  four  years  Mr.  Lincoln  now  remained  a  hard- 
working lawyer,  although  he  did  a  good  deal  of  polit- 
ical work  besides,  particularly  in  "stumping"  Illinois 
and  Indiana  in  the  Presidential  canvass  of  1844.  In 
this  campaign  Mr.  Lincoln  made  many  strong  and  ef- 
fective speeches  for  Henry  Clay,  and  though  his  can- 
didate was  beaten,  his  own  reputation  as  a  politician 
and  speaker  was  much  increased.  In  1846  he  was 
elected  to  Congress  as  a  Whig,  and  his  extreme  popu- 
larity at  home  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  his  own  ma- 
jority on  this  occasion  was  1,511  in  the  Springfield 
district,  while  Mr.  Clay's  had  been  only  914. 

During  this  congressional  term,  Mr.  Lincoln  met  the 
grinding  of  the  great  question  of  the  day — the  upper 
and  nether  millstone  of  slavery  and  freedom  revolving 
against  each  other.  Lincoln's  whole  nature  inclined 
him  to  be  a  harmonizer  of  conflicting  parties,  rather 
than  a  committed  combatant  on  either  side.  He  was 
firmly  and  from  principle  an  enemy  to  slavery,  but  the 
ground  he  occupied  in  Congress  was  in  some  respects 
a  middle  one  between  the  advance  guard  of  the  anti- 
slavery  army  and  the  spears  of  the  fire-eaters.  He 
voted  with  John  Quincy  Adams  for  the  receipt  of 
anti-slavery  petitions ;  he  voted  with  Giddings  for  a 
committee  of  inquiry  into  the  constitutionality  of 
slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  and  the  expedi- 
ency of  abolishing  slavery  in  that  district ;  he  voted 
for  the  various  resolutions  prohibiting  slavery  in  the 
territories  to  be  acquired  from  Mexico,  and  he  voted 
forty-two  times  for  the  Wilmot  Proviso.  On  one  occa- 
sion, he  offered  a  plan  for  abolishing  slavery  in  the 
District  of  Columbia,  by  compensation  from  the  na- 


COURSE    IN    CONGRESS.  31 

tional  treasury,  Trith  the  consent  of  a  majority  of  the 
citizens.  He  opposed  the  annexation  of  Texas,  but 
voted  for  the  bill  to  pay  the  expenses  of  the  war.  He 
voted  against  paying  for  slaves  as  property,  when  that 
question  came  up  in  the  celebrated  Pacheco  case,  and 
thus  recorded  his  denial  of  the  right  of  owning  men, 
or  of  its  acknowledgment  by  the  nation. 

During  this  term  of  service  in  Congress,  Mr.  Lin- 
coln was  a  laborious  and  faithful  public  servant ;  always 
present  to  vote,  and  always  ready  for  business ;  and 
his  speeches,  homely  and  rough  as  they  were,  showed 
so  much  broad  strong  sense,  natural  rectitude,  sincerity, 
and  power  of  reasoning,  as  to  give  him  a  good  position 
as  a  debater.  He  declined  a  re-election  ;  tried  for  but 
did  not  obtain  the  commissionership  of  the  Land  Office 
at  Washington ;  declined  appointments  as  Secretary 
and  as  Governor  of  Oregon  Territory;  returned  to 
his  home  and  his  work  ;  was  unsuccessful  as  candidate 
for  the  United  States  Senate  in  the  Illinois  Legislature 
of  1849-50  ;  and  labored  industriously  at  his  profes- 
sion, until  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise, 
the  Kansas  Nebraska  Bill,  and  the  violences  and  in- 
iquities connected  with  them,  called  him  once  more 
into  public  life. 

He  now  took  the  field,  heart  and  soul  against  the 
plot  to  betray  our  territories  into  slavery,  and  to  perpet- 
uate the  power  of  that  institution  over  the  whole 
country.  Henceforth  he  was  all  his  life  a  public  man ; 
first  a  prominent  champion  in  the  decisively  impor- 
tant state  of  Illinois,  and  afterwards  the  standard  bear- 
er and  the  martyr  of  Freedom  in  America. 

That  contest  in  Illinois,  in  which  the  political  doc- 
trines of  Mr.  Douglas  were  the  central  theme  of  dis- 


32  ABRAmVM    LINCOLN. 

cussion,  and  in  wliich  lie  himself  on.  one  side  and  Mr. 
Lincoln  on  tli^  other,  were  the  leading  speakers  and 
the  controlling  minds,  was  an  important  act  in  that 
great  drama  of  emancipation  which  culminated  in  the 
Rebellion.  In  Mr.  Lincoln's  life  it  was  if  possible 
still  greater  in  comparative  importance ;  for  his  de- 
bates with  Douglas  determined  his  reputation  as  a 
speaker  and  a  public  man,  and  lifted  him  to  the  posi- 
tion from  which  he  stepped  into  the  presidential  chair. 

During  other  previous  and  subsequent  portions  of 
his  life,  other  traits  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  character  were 
often  and  clearly  exemplified.  But  at  no  time  was  he 
nearly  as  plainly  and  strikingly  prominent  as  a  power, 
as  during  his  contest  with  that  bold  and  energetic  pol- 
itician and  remarkably  ready  and  forcible  debater, 
Stephen  A.  Douglas. 

Their  first  great  public  duel,  as  it  may  be  called,  was 
at  Springfield,  in  October,  1854,  just  after  the  passage 
of  the  Nebraska  bill.  The  country  was  all  aflame  with 
excitement.  Every  fibre  of  justice,  honor,  honesty, 
conscience  that  there  was  in  the  community  was  in 
that  smarting  and  vibrating  state  which  follows  the 
infliction  of  a  violent  blow,  and  Douglas  had  come 
back  to  his  own  state  to  soothe  down  the  irritation 
and  to  defend  his  wicked  and  unpopular  course  be- 
fore the  aroused  tribunal  of  his  fellow  citizens. 

He  was  to  defend  his  course  and  conduct  to  a  great 
audience  assembled  at  the  State  fair,  and  Mr.  Lincoln 
was  to  answer  him. 

Never  was  there  a  greater  contrast  between  two  men. 
Douglas  might  be  called  a  brilliant  impersonation  of 
all  the  mere  worldly  forces  of  human  nature.     He 


DEBATES  WITH  DOUGLAS.  33 

had  a  splendid  physique,  with  all  the  powers  of  the 
most  captivating  oratory,  the  melody  of  a  most  aston- 
ishing voice  which  ran  with  ease  through  every  gamut 
of  human  feeling,  grave,  gay,  pathetic,  passionate,  en- 
thusiastic ;  now  rising  with  irresistible  impetuosity,  now 
mocking  with  gay  and  careless  defiance,  and  with  this 
voice  and  this  person,  he  was  master  of  all  those  shad- 
ings and  delicacies  of  sophistry  by  which  the  worse 
can  be  made  to  appear  the  better  reason.  He  knew 
well  how  to  avoid  answering  a  telling  argument  by  a 
dazzling  glitter  of  side  issues — to  make  a  plain  man 
believe  he  had  got  his  difficulty  solved,  when  he  had 
been  only  skilfully  bewitched,  and  made  to  forget 
where  it  was.  In  a  popular  audience  he  had  some- 
thing for  every  one.  Gaiety,  gallantry  and  compli- 
ments for  ladies,  assured  confidence  for  doubters,  ve- 
hement assertions  for  timid  people,  stormy  brow-beat- 
ings, and  lion  roars  of  denunciation,  to  finish  with  a 
grand  sweep  the  popular  impression  which  his  sophis- 
tries and  assertions  had  begun.  Of  truth,  he  made 
that  very  sparing  use  which  demagogues  always  do.  A 
little  blue  line  of  steel  makes  a  whole  heavy  headed 
iron  axe  go  through  the  wood, — and  so  Douglas  just 
skilfully  and  artistically  tipped  the  edges  of  heavy 
masses  of  falsehood  with  the  cutting  force  of  some 
undeniable  truth. 

Of  moral  sensibility  Douglas  had  not  enough  in  his 
nature,  even  to  understand  that  kind  of  material  in 
others,  and  to  make  allowance  for  it.  Nothing  could 
be  more  exactly  the  contrary  of  Lincoln's  scrupulous 
careful  self-education,  in  pure  questions  of  the  right  and 
the  wrong  of  things,  than  Douglas'  glittering,  careless, 


34  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN. 

reckless,  defiant  mode  of  treating  all  these  subjects. 
Lincoln  had  trained  himself  always  to  ask,  What  is  it 
right  to  do  ?  Douglas,  What  can  I  do  ?  Lincoln,  to 
enquire  What  course  oucjlit  they  to  take  ?  Douglas, 
What  course  can  I  make  them  take  ?  Lincoln,  to  ask. 
What  is  the  truth — Douglas,  What  can  be  made  to 
seem  truth.  His  life  question  was  an  inquiry,  pure  and 
simple,  how  much  can  I  get,  how  much  can  I  do, 
without  losing  my  hold  over  men  and  being  turned 
out  of  society  ? 

The  pure  moral  aspects  of  political  questions,  he 
flouted  and  scoffed  at  as  unworthy  the  attention  of  a 
practical  politician.  The  rights  of  human  beings,  the 
eternal  laws  of  rectitude,  he  treated  as  a  skilful  con- 
jurer treats  so  many  gaily  painted  balls,  which  he 
throws  up  and  tosses  and  catches,  simply  to  show  his 
own  agility ;  he  played  with  them  when  they  came  in 
his  way,  just  as  he  thought  he  could  make  them  most 
effective  for  his  own  purposes. 

But  if  he  did  not  understand  or  care  for  eternal 
principles,  he  was  perfect  master  of  all  the  weak  and 
low  and  petty  side  of  human  nature.  He  knew  how 
to  stir  up  all  the  common-place,  base  and  ignoble 
passions  of  man ;  to  bring  his  lower  nature  into  lively 
exercise. 

The  first  day  in  the  fair,  the  multitude  was  given 
up  to  him,  and  he  swept  and  played  on  them  as  a 
master  musician  sweeps  a  piano,  and  for  the  hour  he 
seemed  to  be  irresistible,  bearing  all  things  in  his  own 
way. 

Lincoln  had  this  advantage,  when  his  turn  came, 
that  he   represented  that  higher  portion   of  human 


DEBATES  WITH  DOUGLAS.  35 

nature,  of  which  Douglas  had  little  knowledge,  and 
which  his  mode  of  treatment  had  left  almost  wholly 
untouched.  We  have  spoken  of  the  vast  legal  influ- 
ence which  Lincoln  had  gradually  acquired  in  his  own 
state,  by  the  intense  pertinacity  with  which  he  identified 
himself  in  every  case  wdth  right  and  justice,  so  that 
the  mere  fact  that  he  had  accepted  a  cause  was  a 
strong  reason  in  advance  for  believing  it  the  true  one. 

The  people  had  been  excited,  amused,  dazzled  and 
bewildered,  and  were  tossing  restlessly  as  the  sea  swells 
and  dashes  after  a  gale — when  that  plain  man  without 
outward  "  form  or  comeliness,"  without  dazzle  of  ora- 
tory, or  glitter  of  rhetoric,  rose  to  give  them  in  a 
fatherly  talk,  the  simple  eternal  right  of  the  whole 
thing. 

It  was,  he  felt,  an  hour  of  destiny,  a  crisis  in  the  great 
battle  to  be  fought  for  mankind  for  ages  to  come,  and 
an  eye  witness  thus  describes  the  scene:  "His  whole 
heart  was  in  the  subject.  He  quivered  with  feeling 
and  emotion;  the  house  was  as  still  as  death."  And 
another  account  describes  how  "  the  effect  of  this 
speech  was  most  magnetic  and  powerful.  Cheer  upon 
cheer  interrupted  him,  women  waved  their  handker- 
chiefs, men  sprung  from  their  seats  and  waved  their 
hats  in  uncontrollable  enthusiasm."  Mr.  Douglas  was 
present  at  this  speech,  and  was  the  most  uneasy  au- 
ditor there.  As  soon  as  Mr.  Lincoln  had  concluded, 
Mr.  Douglas  jumped  up  and  said  that  he  had  been 
abused,  "though,"  he  added,  "in  a  perfectly  courte- 
ous manner."  He  went  on  with  a  rejoinder,  and 
spoke  for  some  time,  but  without  much  success.  In 
fact,  he  was  astounded  and  disconcerted  at  finding 


36  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

that  there  was  so  much  to  be  said  against  him,  and 
that  there  was  a  man  to  say  it  so  powerfully.  The  self- 
confident  and  even  arrogant  tone  in  which  he  had 
opened  the  debate  was  gone.  At  closing,  he  an- 
nounced himself  to  continue  his  remarks  in  the  eve- 
ning, but  he  did  not  do  it.  He  had  received  a  blow 
too  tremendous  even  for  his  immense  vigor,  and  from 
which  he  could  not  so  quickly  recover. 

A  little  while  afterwards,  Douglas  spoke  again  and 
Lincoln  answered  him  again,  at  Peoria,  and  with  a  sim- 
ilar result.  The  vast  positive  will  of  the  "  Little 
Giant"  could  not  stand  up  against  the  still  loftier 
power  with  which  Mr.  Lincoln  assailed  him  from  the 
height  of  a  moral  superiority  that  irresistibly  carried 
with  it  the  best  convictions  of  the  whole  community, 
and  cowed  the  defiant  wrong-doer.  Mr.  Lincoln  was 
right  Mr.  Douglas  felt  himself  vanquished  by  a  pow- 
er incomprehensible  to  himself,  and  of  which  none  of 
his  political  calculations  ever  took  account. 

But  as  regards  the  struggle  at  this  time  in  Illinois, 
the  fact  that  he  felt  himself  over-weighted,  was  sujfi- 
ciently  proved  by  his  declining,  after  the  two  duels 
at  Springfield  and  Peoria,  to  proceed,  as  Mr.  Lincoln 
invited  him,  with  a  series  of  such  debates  in  other 
parts  of  the  State. 

Mr.  Lincoln,  having  thus  publicly  shown  himself  far 
stronger  than  the  strongest  of  his  opponents,  proceed- 
ed to  show  himself  a  man  of  kindly  self-command,  by 
foregoing  the  Republican  nomination  to  the  U.  S. 
Senate,  and  giving  it  to  Hon.  Lyman  Trumbull,  in 
order  to  save  the  risk  of  admitting  Matteson,  the  pro- 
slavery  candidate.     Unquestionably  this  conduct  coin- 


DEBATES   WITH   DOUGLAS.  37 

cidecl  with  the  shrewdest  selfishness;  but  very  few 
are  the  politicians  from  whom  a  selfishness  small  and 
near  would  not  conceal  the  larger  and  further  one. 
It  was  by  earnest  and  assiduous  personal  influence 
that  Mr.  Lincoln  secured  Mr.  Trumbull's  election. 

It  is  said  of  a  certain  great  diplomatist,  that  he  was 
so  accustomed  to  dealing  with  men  as  knaves  that 
when  he  had  to  do  with  an  honest  man  he  always  blun- 
dered. Douglas'  mistake  and  defeat  were  precisely 
of  this  kind.  He  had  so  little  sense  of  conscience  or 
moral  feeling  himself  that  he  was  perfectly  unprepared 
for  the  uprising  of  these  sentiments  on  the  part  of  the 
people,  and  astonished  at  the  power  which  a  man 
might  wield  simply  from  addressing  a  class  of  senti- 
ments which  he  habitually  ignored. 

So  in  Congress,  when  the  petition  of  the  three  thou- 
sand clergymen  was  presented  against  the  Kansas  and 
Nebraska  bill,  he  was  in  a  perfect  rage,  and  roared  like 
a  lion  at  bay.  That  this  contemptible  question  of 
right  and  wrong  should  get  up  such  an  excitement 
and  seriously  threaten  such  a  brilliant  stroke  of  di' 
plomacy  as  he  meditated,  seemed  to  him,  in  all  sin- 
cerity, perfectly  ridiculous — he  could  not  sufficiently 
express  his  hatred  and  contempt. 

Mere  power  as  a  debater,  either  in  parliamentary 
assemblies  or  before  popular  meetings,  has  often 
existed,  without  any  share  of  the  calmer,  and  larger, 
and  profounder,  and  more  reflective  abilities  of  the 
statesman.  JMr.  Lincoln  possessed  both,  and  in  both, 
his  methods  were  alike  of  an  intuitively  practical, 
and  remarkably  direct,  simple  and  eflective  nature. 
Doubtless  he  had  often  given  proofs  of  skill  in  practi- 


38  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

cal  politics,  during  his  consultations  of  the  preceding 
twenty  years,  with  the  leaders  and  managers  of  his 
party  in  Illinois.  Obscure  operations  of  local  party 
organizations  seldom  make  any  record,  or  become  vis- 
ible at  all  on  the  surface  of  history.  But  the  man  who 
in  an  adverse  hour,  when  all  other  counsellors  have 
failed,  can  unite  discordant  elements  into  a  new  party, 
must  be  confessed  to  have  statesmanlike  skill.  This  is 
more  peculiarly  so  when  this  party  must  be  founded 
on  a  moral  principle,  and  must  be  bounded  and  cir- 
cumscribed in  its  working  by  moral  rules  and  restraints. 
While  unprincipled  men  can  help  themselves  by  any 
and  all  sorts  of  means,  men  of  principle  are  confined 
to  those  within  certain  limits,  and  the  difficulties  of  or- 
ganization in  such  cases  are  vastly  greater. 

When  in  1856  the  Illinois  convention  met  to  choose 
delegates  to  the  National  Convention  that  nominated 
Fremont,  there  was  in  the  political  ocean  a  wild  chaos 
of  elements.  Free  Soil  men,  Anti-Nebraska  men. 
Liberty  Party  men,  Native  Americans,  Old  Whigs 
and  Old  Democrats,  and  newly  arrived  emigrants  of 
no  party  at  all,  mixed  up  in  heterogeneous  confu- 
sion, tossing  and  tumbling  blindly  about  for  a  new 
platform  to  stand  on.  After  long  and  vain  discussion, 
the  committee  on  a  platform  sent  for  Mr.  Lincoln  and 
asked  for  a  suggestion.  All  the  sections  of  the  Conven- 
tion were  opposed  to  slavery  extension,  but  in  no  oth- 
er current  political  question  were  they  at  one.  There 
was  imminent  danger  of  discord  and  division.  Their 
calm  adviser  quietly  said,  "Take  the  Declaration  of 
Independence,  and  Hostility  to  Slavery  Extension. 
Let  us  build  our  new  party  on  the  rock  of  the  Declara- 


STATESMANLIKE    MORALITY.  39 

tion  of  Independence,  and  the  gates  of  hell  shall  not 
prevail  against  us."  Mr.  Lincoln's  profound  and  unfail- 
ing moral  sense  had  seized  upon  the  relation  between 
the  heart  of  the  United  States  and  eternal  right.  His 
suggestion  embodied  the  only  doctrine  that  could 
have  won  in  the  coming  battle.  What  he  advised 
was  done,  and  the  party,  on  this  platform,  revolution- 
ized Illinois,  made  Mr.  Lincoln  President,  extinguished 
slavery,  and  reorganized  the  nation. 

At  Philadelphia,  the  same  question  came  up  again, 
and  was  solved  by  adopting  the  same  principle.  It 
was  on  this  occasion  that  Mr.  Lincoln's  high  position 
and  important  influence  in  the  northwest  received  the 
first  acknowledgement  that  he  was  obtaining  a  na- 
tional reputation.  He  obtained  a  vote  of  one  hun- 
dred and  ten  for  the  Vice  Presidency  on  the  prelimi- 
nary or  informal  ballot. 

The  great  effort,  however,  which  finally  and  firmly 
established  Mr.  Lincoln's  reputation  as  a  speaker  and 
statesman,  was  in  1858,  when  he  and  Douglas  once 
more  were  brought  to  a  face  encounter  before  the 
people  of  Illinois,  as  opposing  candidates  for  the  U. 
"S.  Senate. 

During  the  months  of  August,  September  and  Octo- 
ber, according  to  the  honest  western  custom,  these  two 
opposing  candidates  stumped  the  State  together,  and 
presented  their  opposing  claims  and  views  in  a  series 
of  public  gatherings.  These  meetings  were  in  conse- 
quence of  Mr.  Lincoln's  invitation,  but  Mr.  Douglas 
in  accepting  adroitly  contrived  to  name  terms  that 
gave  him  the  opening  and  the  closing  turns,  not  only 
of  the  whole  series,  but  of  four  out  of  seven  of  the 
meetings. 


40  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

In  the  June  and  July  preceding,  Mr.  Lincoln  made 
three  other  speeches,  two  at  Springfield  and  one  at 
Chicago,  which  may  be  considered  a  sort  of  preface 
to  the  great  debates.  The  first  of  these,  at  Spring- 
field, June  17,  1858,  was  in  some  respects  the  most 
remarkable  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  oratorical  productions. 
It  was  made  at  the  close  of  the  Republican  State 
Convention  which  nominated  Mr.  Lincoln  a  candidate 
for  the  U.  S.  Senate ;  and  its  opening  paragraph  is  so 
remarkable  for  style,  so  heavy  with  meaning,  and  so 
instinct  with  political  foresight,  that  it  is  worth  quot- 
ing entire.     It  is  as  follows : 

"Mr.  President,  and  Gentlemen  of  the  Convention: 
— If  we  could  first  know  where  we  are,  and  whither 
we  are  tending,  we  could  better  judge  what  to  do, 
and  how  to  do  it.  We  are  now  far  into  the  fifth  year 
since  a  policy  was  initiated  with  the  avowed  object 
and  confident  promise  of  putting  an  end  to  slavery 
agitation.  Under  the  operation  of  that  policy,  that 
agitation  has  not  only  not  ceased,  but  has  constantly 
augmented.  In  my  opinion  it  will  not  cease  until  a 
crisis  shall  have  been  reached  and  passed.  'A  house 
divided  against  itself  cannot  stand.'  I  believe  this 
government  cannot  endure  permanently  half  slave  and 
half  free.  I  do  not  expect  the  Union  to  be  dissolved 
— I  do  not  expect  the  house  to  fall — but  I  do  expect 
it  will  cease  to  be  divided.  It  will  become  all  one 
thing  or  all  the  other.  Either  the  opponents  of  slavery 
will  arrest  the  further  spread  of  it,  and  place  it  where 
the  public  mind  shall  rest  in  the  belief  that  it  is  in  the 
course  of  ultimate    extinction;  or  its  advocates  will 


THE  DEBATES  WITH  DOUGLAS.  41 

push  it  forward,  till  it  shall  become  alike  lawful  in  all 
the  States,  old  as  well  as  new,  North  as  well  as  South." 

In  this  brief  statement,  Mr.  Lincoln  sot  forth  the 
whole  object  of  the  southern  and  northern  parties  on 
the  slavery  question,  and  though  he  did  not  prophesy 
which  way  the  contest  would  be  decided,  he  did 
prophesy  exactly  the  two  alternatives  to  one  of  which 
the  country  was  necessarily  to  advance.  It  is  further 
noticeable  here  that  Mr.  Lincoln's  statement  includes 
exactly  the  same  prophecy,  only  not  so  classically 
worded,  as  Mr.  Seward's  famous  phrase,  in  his  speech 
at  Rochester,  the  following  October,  of  "an  Irrepress- 
ible Conflict."  And  once  more ;  the  opening  sentence, 
as  a  writer  upon  Mr.  Lincoln  has  shown,  is  in  like 
manner  curiously  coincident  in  thought  with  the  first 
sentence  of  another  still  more  famous  speech — Daniel 
Webster's  reply  to  Hayne.     Mr.  Webster  said : 

"When  the  mariner  has  been  tossed  for  many  days 
in  thick  weather,  and  on  an  unknown  sea,  he  naturally 
avails  himself  of  the  first  pause  in  the  storm,  the  ear- 
liest glance  of  the  sun,  to  take  his  latitude,  and  ascer- 
tain how  far  the  elements  have  driven  him  from  his 
true  course.  Let  us  imitate  that  prudence,  and  before 
we  float  further,  refer  to  the  point  from  which  we  de- 
parted, that  we  may  at  least  be  able  to  conjecture 
where  we  now  are." 

That  is  a  stately  and  sonorous  opening,  majestic 
and  poetical.  Now  compare  it  with  Mr.  Lincoln's 
synonym:  "If  we  could  first  know  where  we  are, 
and  whither  we  are  tending,  we  could  better  judge 
what  to  do,  and  how  to  do  it."  The  thing  could  not 
have  been  said  mpre   shortly,  more  directly,  more 


42  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN. 

clearly,  more  strongly  in  English.  As  the  writer 
observes  from  whom  this  parallel  is  taken,  Mr.  Webster 
used  eighty-two  words,  nearly  a  quarter  of  them  hav- 
ing over  one  syllable;  Mr.  Lincoln  only  twenty-five, 
of  which  only  three,  or  less  than  one-eighth,  have 
more  than  one  syllable.  Counting  still  more  closely, 
we  find  that  Mr.  Webster  used  347  letters,  to  Mr.  Lin- 
coln's 88."  In  less  than  one-third  the  words,  in  just 
over  one-fourth  the  letters,  and  without  the  least  ap- 
proach to  a  figure  of  speech,  Mr.  Lincoln  said  what 
Mr.  Webster  did.  "This,"  to  quote  once  more,  "may 
seem  a  petty  method  of  comparing  orators ;  but  it 
reveals  a  great  secret  of  directness,  clearness,  simplic- 
ity and  force  of  style ;  it  goes  far  to  explain  how  Mr. 
Lincoln  convinced  an  audience." 

"This  speech,"  says  Mr.  Arnold,  "was  the  text 
of  the  great  debate  between  Lincoln  and  Dous"- 
las."  It  states  the  question  in  the  United  States  as 
between  slavery  and  freedom,  with  very  great  strength 
and  plainness,  and  lays  down  the  principles  that  apply 
to  it  with  equal  power.  It  had  been  carefully  pre- 
pared beforehand,  as  a  manifesto  for  which  the  times 
were  ripe.  For  the  first  time  it  placed  the  speaker  pub- 
licly upon  advanced  anti-slavery  ground ;  and  it  is  by  no 
means  improbable  that  in  taking  that  ground,  Mr.  Lin- 
coln had  some  secret  conscious  or  half  conscious  feel- 
ing not  only  that  he  was  marking  out  the  place  that 
his  party  must  occupy  in  the  coming  struggle,  but 
that  in  doing  so  he  assumed  the  place  of  standard- 
bearer.  He  explained  the  doctrines  of  the  Nebraska 
Act,  and  the  Dred  Scott  decision ;  showed  how  the 
Democratic  party  had  become  ranged  on  the  side  of 


THE    DEBATES   WITH    DOUGLAS.  43 

slavery;  explained  how  the  result  of  the  Dred  Scott 
decision,  together  with  the  indifferent  policy  so  jaunt- 
ily vaunted  by  Douglas,  of  "not  caring  whether  slav- 
ery were  voted  up  or  down,"  must  result  in  a  final 
victory  of  slavery;  and  showed  how  Mr.  Douglas' 
doctrines  permitted  and  invited  that  final  victory. 
And  having  thus  showed  "where  we  are,  and  whither 
we  are  tending,"  he  ended  with  a  solemn  but  cheering 
exhortation,  "what  to  do  and  how  to  do  it."  "The 
result,"  he  said,  "is  not  doubtful.  We  shall  not  fail, 
if  we  stand  firm  we  shall  not  fail.  Wise  counsels  may 
accelerate,  or  mistakes  delay  it,  but  sooner  or  later, 

THE    VICTORY    IS    SURE    TO    COME." 

That  is  the  language,  not  of  a  party  politician,  re- 
commending expedient  nostrums,  but  of  a  statesman 
who  feels  profoundly  that  his  people  are  sound  at 
heart,  and  will  assuredly  one  day  do  full  justice  ;  Avho 
proclaims  in  advance  the  eternal  victory  of  the  right 
side,  and  boldly  calls  on  all  who  hear  him  to  advance 
up  to  the  line  of  their  own  consciences. 

Before  delivering  this  speech,  Mr.  Lincoln  locked 
himself  into  a  room  with  his  partner,  Mr.  llerndon, 
and  read  him  the  first  paragraph  of  the  speech. 
"What  do  you  think  of  it?"  said  he.  Herndon  an- 
swered, "I  think  it  is  all  true,  but  I  doubt  whether  it 
is  good  policy  to  say  it  now."  Mr.  Lincoln  replied, 
"  That  makes  no  difference ;  it  is  the  truth,  and  the 
nation  is  entitled  to  it."  This  was  both  honest  and 
politic ;  for  if  the  ground  of  principle  as  against  ex- 
pediency had  not  been  taken,  there  was  none  left  to 
oppose  the  reasonings  of  Mr.  Douglas,  which  were 
extremely  adroit,  and  so  far  as  expediency  admitted, 
indeed  unanswerable. 


44  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

In  the  conduct  of  that  remarkable  campaign  of 
1858,  Mr.  Douglas  was  the  advocate  of  expediency, 
Mr.  Lincoln  of  principle.  Mr.  Do.uglas  appealed  to 
the  prejudices  of  the  white  race  against  the  black,  and 
argued  in  favor  of  present  ease  and  selfish  indifference 
to  justice  in  our  conduct  as  a  nation.  Mr.  Lincoln 
incessantly  appealed  to  the  consciences  of  his  audi- 
ence, to  all  that  part  of  human  nature  which  is  kindly, 
which  is  just,  which  is  noble ;  to  the  broad  doctrines 
upon  which  our  national  freedom  was  originally  based. 
It  is  true  that  along  with  these  main  currents  of  de- 
bate numerous  minor  questions  and  side  issues  came 
up ;  but  such  was  the  pervading  color,  the  chief  drift 
of  the  discussion.  Over  and  over  and  over  again, 
there  sounds  out  among  the  words  of  Douglas,  "This 
is  a  white  man's  government ;  the  negro  ought  not  to 
vote."  And  even  more  constant  is  the  lofty  reply,  "I 
stand  by  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  and  the 
everlasting  rights  of  humanity.  The  negro  is  a  man, 
and  he  ought  to  have  all  the  rights  of  a  man !" 

Mr.  Lincoln's  speech  at  Springfield,  on  June  17th, 
has  been  briefly  described.  Mr.  Douglas,  coming  home 
to  his  own  State,  to  justify  his  course,  and  receive  his 
re-election,  answered  him  in  his  Chicago  speech  of 
July  9th,  and  Mr.  Lincoln  rejoined  next  day.  Doug- 
las spoke  again,  at  Bloomington  on  the  16th,  and  at 
Springfield  on  the  17th,  and  on  the  latter  day  Mr,- 
Lincoln  spoke  also  at  Springfield.  In  this  speech  he 
set  forth  a  curious  and  characteristic  contrast  between 
himself  and  his  opponent,  in  a  grotesque  and  sarcastic 
manner  that  must  have  told  sharply  upon  his  western 
audience,  while  its  comic  surface  is  underlaid  with  the 


THE  DEBATES  WITH  DOCGLAS.  45 

usual  solid  basis  of  conscious  adherence  to  justice  and 
principle.     Mr.  Lincoln  said : 

"Senator  Douglas  is  of  world-wide  renown.  All 
the  anxious  politicians  of  his  party,  or  who  have  been 
of  his  party  for  years  past,  have  been  looking  upon 
him  as  certainly,  at  no  distant  day,  to  be  the  President 
of  the  United  States.  They  have  seen  in  his  round, 
jolly,  fruitful  face,  post-offices,  land-offices,  marshal- 
ships  and  cabinet  appointments,  chargeships  and  for- 
eign missions,  bursting  and  sprouting  out  in  wonderful 
exuberance,  ready  to  be  laid  hold  of  by  their  greedy 
hands.  And  as  they  have  been  gazing  upon  this  attract- 
ive picture  so  long,  they  cannot,  in  the  little  distraction 
that  has  taken  place  in  the  party,  bring  themselves  to 
give  up  the  charming  hope ;  but  with  greedier  anxiety 
they  rush  about  him,  sustain  him,  and  give  him  march- 
es, triumphal  entries,  and  receptions  beyond  what 
even  in  the  days  of  his  highest  prosperity  4hey  could 
have  brought  about  in  his  favor.  On  the  contrary, 
nobody  has  ever  expected  me  to  be  President.  In 
my  poor,  lean,  lank  fiice,  nobody  has  ever  seen  that 
any  cabbages  were  sprouting  out.  These  are  disad- 
vantages, all  taken  together,  that  the  Republicans  la- 
bor under.  We  have  to  fight  this  battle  upon  princi- 
ple, and  upon  principle  alone.  I  am,  in  a  certain 
sense,  made  the  standard-bearer  in  behalf  of  the  Re- 
publicans. I  was  made  so  merely  because  there  had 
to  be  some  one  so  placed — 1  being  in  no  wise  prefer- 
able to  any  other  one  of  the  twenty-five — perhaps  a 
hundred,  ^ve  have  in  the  Republican  ranks.  Then  I 
say  I  wish  it  to  be  distinctly  understood  and-  borne  in 

mind,  that  we  have  to  fight  this  battle  without  many 
4 


46  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN. 

— perhaps  without  any — of  the  external  aids  which 
are  brought  to  bear  against  us.  So  I  hope  those  with 
whom  I  am  surrounded  have  principle  enough  to  nerve 
themselves  for  the  task  and  leave  nothing  undone  that 
can  be  fairly  done,  to  bring  about  the  right  result." 

Two  years  before,  Mr.  Lincoln  had  used  even  stron- 
ger terms  in  contrasting  himself  and  his  antagonist. 
In  1856  he  said:  "Twenty-two  years  ago,  Judge 
Douglas  and  I  first  became  acquainted  ;  we  were  both 
young  men — he  a  trifle  younger  than  I.  Even  then 
we  were  both  ambitious,  I  perhaps  quite  as  much  as 
he.  With  me,  the  race  of  ambition  has  been  a  failure 
— a  flat  failure.  With  him,  it  has  been  one  of  splen- 
did success.  His  name  fills  the  nation,  and  it  is 
not  unknown  in  foreign  lands.  I  affect  no  contempt 
for  the  high  eminence  he  has  reached.  So  reached 
that  the  oppressed  of  my  species  might  have  shared 
with  me  in  the  elevation.,  I  would  rather  stand  on  that 
eminence  than  wear  the  richest  crown  that  ever  press- 
ed a  monarch's  brow." 

Mr.  Lincoln's  exact  position  on  the  emancipation 
question  at  this  time,  is  an  interesting  illustration  of 
his  firm  adherence  to  principle,  and  at  the  same  time 
of  his  extreme  caution  in  touching  established  laws, 
and  his  natural  tendency  to  give  voice  to  the  average 
public  sentiment  of  his  day,  rather  than  to  go  beyond 
it,  or  to  reprove  that  sentiment  for  not  going  further. 
He  averred  over  and  over  again,  that  he  was  "  not  in 
favor  of  negro  citizenship  ;"  but  he  said  "  there  is  no 
reason  in  the  world  why  the  negro  is  not  entitled  to 
all  the  rights  enumerated  in  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence— the  right  of  life,  liberty  and  the  pursuit  of 


THE    DEBATES   WITH   DOUGLAS.  47 

happiness.  In  the  right  to  eat  the  bread  without  the 
leave  of  anybody  else,  which  his  own  hand  earns,  he 
is  my  equal,  and  the  equal  of  Judge  Douglas,  and  the 
equal  of  every  other  man." 

The  same  primary  granite  substratum  of  moral 
right,  of  everlasting  justice,  underlies  all  these  speeches. 
•It  crops  out  here  and  there,  in  pas.sages,  a  specimen 
of  which  is  worth  quoting,  not  merely  for  the  sake  of 
their  aptness  then  or  now  ;  but  also  as  excellent  pat- 
terns for  the  application  of  moral  principles  to  politi- 
cal practices — a  lesson  peculiarly  important  in  a  re- 
public, simply  because  its  diligent  employment  is  the 
sole  possible  basis  of  national  strength  and  happiness. 
In  the  debate  at  Quincy,  October  13th,  Mr.  Lincoln 
stated  a  whole  code  of  political  ethics,  along  with  its 
application  to  the  case  in  hand,  in  one  pai'agraph,  as 
follows : 

"  We  have  in  this  nation  this  element -of  domestic 
slavery.  It  is  a  matter  of  absolute  certainty  that  it  is 
a  disturbing  element.  It  is  the  opinion  of  all  the 
great  men  who  have  expressed  an  opinion  upon  it, 
that  it  is  a  dangerous  element.  We  keep  up  a  contro- 
versy in  regard  to  it.  That  controversy  necessarily 
springs  from  difference  of  opinion,  and  if  we  can  learn 
exactly — can  reduce  to  the  lowest  elements — what  that 
difference  of  opinion  is,  we  perhaps  shall  be  better 
prepared  for  discussing  the  different  systems  of  policy 
that  we  would  propose  in  regard  to  that  disturbing 
element.  I  suggest  that  the  difference  of  opinion, 
reduced  to  its  lowest  terms,  is  no  other  than  the  dif- 
ference between  the  men  who  think  slavery  a  wrong 
and  those  who  do  not  think  it  a  wrong.     The  Repub- 


48  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

lican  party  think  it  wrong — we  think  it  is  a  moral,  a 
social  and  a  political  wrong.  We  think  it  is  a  wrong 
not  confining  itself  merely  to  the  persons  or  the  States 
where  it  exists,  but  that  it  is  a  wrong  in  its  tendency, 
to  say  the  least,  that  it  extends  itself  to  the  existence 
of  the  whole  nation.  Because  we  think  it  wrong,  we 
propose  a  course  of  policy  that  shall  deal  with  it  as  a 
wrong.  We  deal  with  it  as  with  any  other  wrong,  in 
so  far  as  we  can  prevent  its  growing  any  larger,  and 
so  deal  with  it  that  in  the  run  of  time  there  may  be 
some  promise  of  an  end  to  it.  We  have  a  due  regard 
to  the  actual  presence  of  it  amongst  us  and  the  diffi- 
culties of  getting  rid  of  it  in  any  satisfactory  way, 
and  all  the  Constitutional  obligations  thrown  about  it. 
I  suppose  that  in  reference  both  to  its  actual  existence 
in  the  nation,  and  to  our  Constitutional  obligations, 
we  have  no  right  at  all  to  disturb  it  in  the  States 
where  it  exists,  and  we  profess  that  we  have  no  more 
inclination  to  disturb  it  than  we  have  the  right  to  do 
it.  We  go  further  than  that ;  we  don't  propose  to 
disturb  it  where,  in  one  instance,  we  think  the  Con- 
stitution would  permit  us.  We  think  the  Constitution 
would  permit  us  to  disturb  it  in  the  District  of  Colum- 
bia. Still  we  do  not  propose  to  do  that,  unless  it 
should  be  in  terms  which  I  don't  suppose  the  nation 
is  very  likely  soon  to  agree  to —  the  terms  of  making 
the  emancipation  gradual  and  compensating  the  un- 
willing owners.  Where  we  suppose  we  have  the  Con- 
stitutional right,  we  restrain  ourselves  in  reference  to 
the  actual  existence  of  the  institution  and  the  difii- 
culties  thrown  about  it.  We  also  oppose  it  as  an  evil 
so  far  as  it  seeks  to  spread  itself  We  insist  on  the 
policy  that  shall  restrict  it  to  its  present  limits." 


THE    DEBATES    WITH    DOUGLAS.  49 

Still  more  sharply  and  strongly  lie  stated  the  ques- 
tion in  the  last  debate,  at  Alton,  as  simply  this :  Is 
Slavery  wrong  ? 

"  That  is  the  real  issue.  That  is  the  issue  that  will 
continue  in  this  country  when  these  poor  tongues  of 
Judge  Douglas  and  myself  shall  be  silent.  It  is  the 
eternal  struggle  between  these  two  principles — right 
and  wrong — throughout  the  w^orld.  They  are  the  two 
principles  that  have  stood  face  to  face  from  the  begin- 
ning of  time;  and  will  ever  continue  to  struggle. 
The  one  is  the  common  rif^ht  of  humanitv  and  the 
other  the  divine  right  of  kings.  It  is  the  same  prin- 
ciple, in  w^hatever  shape  it  develops  itself  It  is  the 
same  spirit  that  says,  "  You  work  and  toil  and  earn 
bread,  and  I'll  eat  it."  No  matter  in  what  shape  it 
comes,  whether  from  the  mouth  of  a  king  who  seeks 
to  bestride  the  people  of  his  own  nation  and  live  by 
the  fruit  of  their  labor,  or  from  one  race- of  men  as  an 
apology  for  enslaving  another  race,  it  is  the  same 
tyrannical  principle." 

With  equal  force  he  often  exposed  and  rebuked  the 
moral  levity  shown  by  his  opponent — his  affectation  of 
indifference  to  all  principle,  his  supercilious  dazzling 
contempt  of  moral  distinctions.  In  his  last  speech  at 
Alton,  he  very  fully  reviewed  the  whole  question,  and 
Mr.  Douglas'  individual  position  before  the  country, 
with  great  breadth  and  power. 

There  was  as  striking  a  contrast  between  the  exter- 
nals of  the  two  champions,  as  between  their  political 
doctrines. '  Douglas  went  pompously  up  and  down  the 
land,  with  special  trains  of  railroad  cars,  bands  of  mu- 
sic, long  processions,  banners,  cannon  firing,  and  all 


50  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

the  flourish  and  gaudy  show  of  a  triumphing  conquer- 
or ;  and  he  is  said  to  have  paid  away  half  his  fortune 
in  securing  this  fatal  victory.  But  Mr.  Lincoln  went 
about  almost  as  frugally,  as  plainly,  as  quietly,  as  if  he 
had  been  on  one  of  his  accustomed  legal  circuits,  and 
reflected  with  a  queer  astonishment  upon  the  trifling 
sum  that  he  did  actually  expend.  He  said  to  a  friend 
after  the  campaign  was  over,  "  I  don't  believe  I  have 
expended  in  this  canvass  one  cent  less  than  Five  Hun- 
dred Dollars  in  cash !  "  He  sometimes  good  hu- 
moredly  alluded  to  these  demonstrations.  '  'Auxiliary  to 
these  main  points,"  he  says,  "to  be  sure,  are  their 
thunderings  of  cannon,  their  marching  and  music,  their 
fizzle-gigs  and  fire  works ;  but  I  will  not  waste  time 
with  them,  they  are  but  the  little  trappings  of  the 
campaign."  Mr.  Townsend,  a  picturesque  writer,  thus 
contrasts  the  bearing  of  the  two  men:  ''Douglas  was 
uneasily  arrogant  in  Lincoln's  presence ;  the  latter, 
never  sensitive  nor  flurried,  so  grew  by  his  impertur- 
bability that  when  he  reached  the  White  House,  Mr. 
Douglas  was  less  surprised  than  anybody  else.  The 
great  senatorial  campaign,  in  which  they  figured  to- 
gether, is  remembered  by  every  Springfielder.  Doug- 
las, with  his  powerful  voice  and  facile  energy,  went 
into  it  under  full  steam.  Lincoln  began  lucidly  and 
cautiously.  When  they  came  out  of  it,  Douglas  was 
worn  down  with  rage  and  hoarseness,  and  Lincoln  was 
fresher  than  ever.  He  prepared  all  the  speeches  of 
this  campaign  by  silent  meditation,  sitting  or  lying 
alone,  studying  the  flies  on  the  ceiling.  "  The  best  evi- 
dence of  his  superiority  in  this  debate  is  the  fact  that 
the  Republicans  circulated  both  sets  of  speeches  as  a 


THE  DEBATES  WITH  DOUGLAS.  51 

campaign  document  in  1860,  but  Mr.  Douglas's  friends 
refused  to  do  so. 

And  Mr.  Arnold,  a  personal  friend  of  Mr.  Lincoln's, 
attributes  to  Mr.  Lincoln  just  that  sort  of  superiority 
that  comes  from  a  consciousness  of  being  on  the  right 
side  and  of  having  an  antagonist  in  whose  attitude 
there  is  reason  fur  contempt.  "lie  had  one  advan- 
tage," says  Mr.  Arnold,  "over  Douglas,  he  was  always 
good  humored  ;  he  had  always  an  apt  and  happy  story 
for  illustration,  and  while  Douglas  was  sometimes  ir- 
ritable, Lincoln  never  lost  his  temper."  And  Mr. 
Arnold  says  that  when  Lincoln  and  Douglas  came  to 
Chicago  together  just  after  the  close  of  the  seven  de- 
bates, "  Lincoln  was  in  perfect  health,  his  face  bronzed 
by  the  prairie  suns,  but  looking  and  moving  like  a 
trained  athlete.  His  voice  was  clearer,  stronger  and 
better  than  when  he  began  the  canvass.  Douglas  was 
physically  much  broken.  He  was  so  hOarse  that  he 
could  hardly  articulate,  and  was  entirely  unintelligible 
in  an  ordinary  tone." 

But  the  circumstance  that  shows  most  clearly  of  all, 
how  entirely  Mr.  Lincoln  saw  over,  and  through,  and 
beyond  his  adversary,  both  as  statesman  and  politician, 
how  entirely  he  managed  him,  wielded  him,  used 
him,  is  the  fearful  grip  irto  which  he  put  the  "Little 
Giant"  on  the  question  of  the  conflict  between  "Pop- 
ular Sovereignty"  and  the  Dred  Scott  decision.  In 
return  for  a  series  of  questions  by  Mr.  Douglas,  ^Ir. 
Lincoln,  having  answered  them  all  categorically,  pre- 
pared certain  others  to  put  to  Mr.  Douglas ;  and  of 
these  one  was : 

"Can  the  people  of  a  United  States  Territory,  in 


52  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN, 

any  lawful  way,  against  the  wish  of  any  citizen  of  the 
United  States,  exclude  slavery  from  its  limits  prior  to 
the  formation  of  a  State  Constitution  ?  " 

When  Mr.  Lincoln  consulted  a  friend  upon  this  set 
of  questions,  the  friend  remonstrated  against  this  one ; 
saying  in  substance,  "In  answer,  Mr.  Douglas  must 
either  accept  the  Dred  Scott  decision  as  binding, 
which  would  lose  him  the  election  to  the  Senate  in 
consequence  of  the  popular  feeling  in  Illinois  against 
it,  or  else  that  he  must  assert  that  his  doctrine  of  "  squat- 
ter sovereignty  "  would  enable  the  territory  to  keep 
slavery  out,  by  "unfriendly  legislation,"  contrary  to  the 
Dred  Scott  decision.  And  this,"  urged  the  friend,  "  he 
will  do ;  it  will  satisfy  Illinois,  and  give  Douglas  the 
senatorship.  You  are  only  placing  the  step  for  him 
to  rise  upon." 

"  That  may  be,"  said  Mr.  Lincoln,  with  a  shrewd 
look,  "  hut  if  he  takes  that  shoot  he  never  can  he  Presi- 
dent.'^'' This  meant,  that  while  the  doctrine  of  legislat- 
ing slavery  out  of  a  territory  might  satisfy  Illinois,  it 
would  be  odious  and  inadmissible  to  the  whole  South, 
and  that  it  would  therefore  render  Douglas'  election 
to  the  Presidency  impossible.  And  it  came  to  pass 
exactly  as  Mr.  Lincoln  foretold  at  this  time,  and  as 
he  told  "Billy"  when  he  returned  home  at  the  end 
of  the  canvass.  One  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  characteristic 
sentences  afterwards  summed  all  the  contradiction  of 
Douglas'  position,  in  the  statement  that  it  was  "de- 
claring that  a  thing  may  be  lawfully  driven  away  from 
a  place  where  it  has  a  lawful  right  to  go." 

These  seven  debates  were  the  most  widely  known 
of  Mr.  Lincoln's  labors  in  this  campaign,  but  he  made 


COOPER    INSTITUTE    SPEECH.  53 

about  fifty  other  speeches  in  different  parts  of  the 
State. 

The  result  of  this  celebrated  canvass  was  to  return 
Douglas  to  the  Senate,  although  the  vote  of  the  peo- 
ple was  in  favor  of  Lincoln.  The  Legislative  districts 
in  the  State  had  been  so  arranged  by  the  Demo- 
cratic party  as  to  secure  their  majority  in  the  Legisla- 
ture. But  even  if  the  popular  majority  had  been 
with  Douglas,  Mr.  Lincoln  had  won.  He  set  out  to 
lose  the  State ;  he  set  out  to  carry  the  nation ;  and  he 
did  it.  It  was  the  foresight  of  the  statesman,  con- 
tending with  the  cunning  of  the  politician.  It  was 
part  of  the  victory  that  he  who  really  lost  thought  he 
had  won.  Mr.  Herndon,  Mr.  Lincoln's  law  partner, 
told  afterwards  how  Mr.  Lincoln  came  home  and  said, 
"Billy,  I  knew  I  should  miss  the  place,  when  I  com- 
peted for  it.     This  defeat  ivill  make  me  President^ 

In  the  period  between  this  canvass  and  the  Presi- 
dential nomination  at  Chicago,  Mr.  Lincoln,  while  at 
work  in  his  profession,  did  good  service  in  the  cause 
of  freedom  in  several  of  the  States,  making  a  number 
of  effective  speeches  in  Ohio,  Kansas,  and  particularly 
in  New  England  and  New  York.  His  contest  with 
Douglas  had  probably  already  made  Mr.  Lincoln  the 
second  choice  of  large  numbers  of  Republicans  for 
the  nomination  of  1860.  His  great  speech  at  Cooper 
Institute  in  February,  18 GO,  confirmed  this  choice,  and 
enlarged  those  numbers. 

The  invitation  which  resulted  in  his  great  Cooper 
Institute  speech  was  originally  to  give  a  lecture  in 
Plymouth  Church,  in  Brooklyn,  and  he  was' to  receive 
S200  for  it.     After  some   delay,  at   last   he   agreed 


54  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

to  speak  on  February  27th;  but  the  three  young  men 
who  had  organized  the  course,  thought  the  time  late 
in  the  season,  and  began  to  fear  that  they  would  lose 
money.  It  sounds  curious  enough  now,  to  think  of  a 
fear  lest  a  speech  by  Mr,  Lincoln  should  not  refund 
$350  expenses,  but  so  they  thought.  A  political 
friend  of  his  who  had  negotiated  the  engagement,  at 
last  assumed  one  fourth  of  the  risk,  and  with  a  good 
deal  of  trouble,  managed  to  have  the  speech  at  Coop- 
er Institute,  instead  of  Brooklyn.  Attempts  were 
vainly  made  to  induce  one  and  then  another  Repub- 
lican club  to  assume  the  risk  of  the  engagement. 
The  New  York  Times,  in  announcing  the  lecture,  kind- 
ly spoke  of  the  speaker  as  "a  lawyer  who  had  some 
local  reputation  in  Illinois." 

The  Cooper  Institute  speech  was  prepared  with 
much  care,  and  was  a  production  of  very  great  power 
of  logic,  history  and  political  statement.  It  consisted 
of  an  exposition  of  the  true  doctrines  of  the  founders 
of  our  nation  on  the  question  of  slavery,  and  of  the 
position  of  the  two  parties  of  the  day  on  the  same 
question.  It  was  alive  and  luminous  throughout  with 
the  resolute  and  lofty  and  uncompromising  morality 
on  principle,  which  had  colored  all  his  debates  with 
Douglas,  and  made  a  very  deep  impression  upon  the 
audience  present,  and  upon  the  far  greater  audience 
that  read  it  afterwards. 

Its  close  was  very  powerful.  After  showing  that 
the  demands  of  the  South  were  summed  up  in  the  re- 
quirement that  the  North  should  call  slavery  right  in- 
stead of  wrong,  and  should  then  join  the  south  in 
acting  accordingly,  he  added: 


COOPER    INSTITUTE    SPEECH.  55 

"If  our  sense  of  duty  forbids  this,  then  let  us  stand 
hj  our  duty,  fearlessly  and  effectively.  Let  us  be 
diverted  by  none  of  those  sophistical  contrivances 
wherewith  we  are  so  industriously  plied  and  bela- 
bored— contrivances  such  as  groping  for  some  mid- 
dle ground  between  the  right  and  the  wrong,  vain  as 
the  search  for  a  man  who  should  be  neither  a  living 
man  nor  a  dead  man — such  as  a  policy  of  ^'  don't 
care"  on  a  question  about  which  all  true  men  do  care 
— such  as  Union  appeals,  beseeching  true  Union  men 
to  yield  to  disunionists,  reversing  the  Divine  rule,  and 
calling,  not  the  sinners,  but  the  righteous  to  repent- 
ance— such  as  invocations  of  Washington,  imploring 
men  to  unsay  what  Washington  said,  and  undo  what 
Washington  did.  Neither  let  us  be  slandered  from 
our  duty  by  ftilse  accusations  against  us,  nor  frightened 
from  it  by  menaces  of  destruction  to  the  Goverumeiit, 
nor  of  dungeons  to  ourselves.  Let  us  Iiave  iaith  that 
right  makes  might,  and  in  that  faith  let  us,  to  the 
end,  dare  to  do  our  duty,  as  we  understand  it." 

The  words  are  singularly  plain,  they  are  nakedly  home- 
ly.    But  the  thoughts  are  very  noble  and  very  mighty. 

At  the  close  of  the  speech,  the  same  friend  who  had 
engineered  it,  made  a  few  remarks,  in  which  he  proph- 
esied. He  said,  ''One  of  three  gentlemen  will  be  our 
standard  bearer  in  the  Presidential  contest  of  this  year; 
the  distinguished  Senator  from  New  York — Mr.  Sew- 
ard; the  late  able  and  accomplished  Governor  of  Ohio, 
Mr.  Chase,  or  the  unknown  knii^ht  who  entered  the 
political  list,  against  the  Bois  Guilbert  of  democracy, 
Stephen  A.  Douglas,  on  the  prairies  of  Illinois,  in 
1858,  and  unhorsed  him—  Abraham  Lincoln. 


56  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

The  narrator  adds,  "  Some  friends  joked  me  after 
the  meeting,  as  not  being  a  good  prophet.  The  lec- 
ture was  over ;  all  the  expenses  were  paid  ;  I  was 
handed  by  the  gentlemen  interested,  the  sum  of  $4.25 
as  my  share  of  the  profits."  It  is  worth  adding  that 
Mr.  Lincoln  observed  to  the  same  gentleman,  after  his 
subsequent  tour  further  eastward,  "  when  I  was  East, 
several  gentlemen  made  about  the  same  remark  to  me 
that  you  did  to-day  about  the  Presidency ;  they 
thought  my  chances  were  about  equal  to  the  best." 

The  story  of  the  nomination  at  Chicago,  of  the 
election,  of  the  perilous  journey  to  Washington,  need 
not  be  repeated.  While  the  nominating  convention 
was  sitting,  Mr.  Lincoln's  friends  telegraphed  to  him 
that  in  order  to  be  nominated  he  needed  the  votes  of 
two  of  the  delegations,  and  that  to  secure  these,  he 
must  promise  that  if  elected  the  leaders  of  those  del- 
egations should  be  made  members  of  his  Cabinet.  He 
telegraphed  at  once  back  again  ;  "I  authorize  no  bar- 
gains and  will  be  bound  by  none."  The  adoption  of 
those  ten  words  as  a  rule  would  go  very  far  to  purify 
the  whole  field  of  political  party  action. 

Little  did  the  convention  that  nominated  Abraham 
Lincoln  for  President,  know  what  they  were  doing. 
Little  did  the  honest,  fatherly,  patriotic  man,  who  stood 
in  his  simplicity  on  the  platform  at  Springfield,  asking 
the  prayers  of  his  townsmen  and  receiving  their 
pledges  to  remember  him,  foresee  how  awfully  he  was 
to  need  those  prayers,  the  prayers  of  all  this  nation 
and  the  prayers  of  all  the  working,  suffering  common 
people  throughout  the  world.  God's  hand  was  upon 
him  with  a  visible  protection,  saving  first  from  the 


HIS    COURAGE.  57 

danger  of   assassination   at  Baltimore,  and  bringing 
him  safely  to  our  national  capital. 

Perhaps  the  imperturbable  cool  courage  of  Mr.  Lin- 
coln was  the  trait  in  him  least  appreciated  in  propor- 
tion to  his  share  of  it.  He  promptly  and  unhesitat- 
ingly risked  his  life  to  keep  his  Philadelphia  appoint- 
ment on  the  way  to  Washington,  filling  his  programme, 
because  it  was  his  duty,  without  any  variance  for  as- 
sassins. It  should  be  here  recorded,  by  the  way,  that 
the  story  that  he  fled  from  Harrisburg,  disguised  in  a 
Scotch  cap  and  cloak,  which  made  so  much  noise  in 
the  country  at  the  time,  was  a  forgery,  devised  by  a 
disreputable  reporter.  Mr.  Lincoln  never  used  any 
disguises,  and  it  would  have  required  more  than  one 
"  Scotch  cap  "  to  bring  his  six  feet  four  down  to  an 
average  height. 

He  was  so  kind-hearted,  so  peaceable,  so  averse, 
either  to  cause  or  to  witness  controversy  or  wrath,  that 
only  the  extremest  need  would  force  him  to  the  point 
of  wrath  and  of  fighting.  But  when  the  need  was 
real,  the  wrath  and  the  fight  came  out.  Whether 
moral  or  physical  courage,  upon  a  real  demand  for  it, 
it  never  failed.  On  his  flat  boat  trip  to  New  Orleans 
in  his  youth,  he  and  his  mate,  armed  only  with  sticks 
of  wood,  beat  off  seven  negro  marauders  who  at- 
tacked and  would  have  robbed  their  boat.  When 
clerk  in  a  country  store  he  seized,  flung  down  and  sub- 
dued a  bully  who  was  insolent  to  some  women,  and 
what  is  more,  the  beaten  bully  became  his  friend.  He 
once,  alone,'by  suddenly  dropping  from  a  scuttle  down 
upon  the  platform,  kept  oif  a  gang  of  rowdies  who 
were  about  to  hustle  his  friend  Col.   Baker    off  the 


58  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

stand.  He  and  Baker  once,  with  no  otliers,  escorted 
to  the  hotel,  a  speaker  who  was  threatened  with  vio- 
lence by  a  Democratic  crowd  whom  he  had  offended. 
When  some  Irishmen  at  Springfield  once  undertook 
to  take  possession  of  the  poll  and  restrict  the  voting 
to  their  friends,  Lincoln,  hearing  of  it,  stepped  into 
the  first  store,  seized  an  axe  helve,  and  marched  alone 
through  the  turbulent  crowd  up  to  the  poll,  opening 
the  road  as  he  went ;  and  alone  he  kept  the  ballot-box 
free  and  safe  until  the  foolish  crowd  gave  up  their 
■plan.  His  anger  sometimes — though  very  seldom — 
flamed  up  at  ill  usage  of  himself;  but  never  so  hotly 
as  at  ill  usage  to  others.  When  a  poor  negro  citizen 
of  Illinois  was  imprisoned  at  New  Orleans,  simply  for 
being  a  free  negro  from  outside  of  Louisiana,  and  was 
about  to  be  sold  into  slavery,  to  pay  jail  fees,  Mr.  Lin- 
coln found  that  the  Governor  of  Illinois  could  not 
help  the  poor  fellow.  When  the  fact  became  plain, 
he  jumped  up  and  swore,  "  By  the  Almighty,"  he 
said,  "  I'll  have  that  negro  back,  or  I'll  have  a  twenty 
years'  agitation  in  Illinois,  until  the  Governor  can  do 
something  in  the  premises  !"  Somebody  sent  money 
and  set  the  man  free  ;  or  else  the  twenty  years'  agita- 
tion would  have  begun,  and  finished  too.  An  officer, 
a  worthless  fellow,  after  being  dismissed  and  repeatedly 
trying  to  get  back  into  the  army,  at  last  insolently 
told  President  Lincoln,  "I  see  you  are  fully  deter- 
mined not  to  do  me  justice."  Now  this  was  just  what 
he  was  determined  to  do  him ;  and  in  ris-hteous  an^er 
he  arose,  laid  down  his  papers,  collared  the  fellow, 
walked  him  to  the  door  and  flung  him  out,  saying, 
"  Sir,  I  give  you  fair  warning,  never  to  show  yourself  in 
this  room  again.     I  can  bear  censure,  but  not  insult !" 


mS    STATE    PAPERS.  50 

In  Mr.  Lincoln's  administration,  the  world  has  seen 
and  wondered  at  the  greatest  sign  and  marvel  of  our 
day,  to  wit,  a  plain  Avorking  man  of  the  people,  with 
no  more  culture,  instruction  or  education  than  any 
such  working  man  may  obtain  for  himself,  called  on 
to  conduct  the  passage  of  a  great  nation  through  a 
crisis  involving  the  destinies  of  the  whole  world.  The 
eyes  of  princes,  nobles,  aristocrats,  of  dukes,  earls, 
scholars,  statesmen,  warriors,  all  turned  on  the  plain 
backwoodsman,  with  his  simple  sense,  his  imperturb- 
able simplicity,  his  determined  self-reliance,  his  imprac- 
ticable and  incorruptible  honesty,  as  he  sat  amid  the 
war  of  conflicting  elements,  with  unpretending  stead- 
iness, striving  to  guide  the  national  ship  through  a 
channel  at  whose  perils  the  world's  oldest  statesmen 
stood  aghast.  The  brilliant  courts  of  Europe  levelled 
their  opera  glasses  at  the  phenomenon.  Fair  ladies 
saw  that  he  had  horny  hands  and  disdained  white 
gloves  ;  dapper  diplomatists  were  shocked  at  his  sys- 
tem of  etiquette;  but  old  statesmen,  who  knew  the 
terrors  of  that  passage,  were  wiser  than  court  ladies 
and  dandy  diplomatists,  and  watched  him  with  a  fear- 
ful curiosity,  simply  asking,  "■  Will  that  awkward  old 
backwoodsman  really  get  that  ship  through  ?  If  he 
does,  it  will  be  time  for  us  to  look  about  us."  Sooth 
to  say,  our  own  politicians  were  somewhat  shocked 
with  his  State  papers  at  first.  "  Why  not  let  lis  make 
them  a  little  more  conventional,  and  file  them  to  a 
classical  pattern  ?"  "  No,"  was  his  reply,  "  I  shall  write 
them  myself.  The  people  tvill  understand  tliemy 
"  But  this  or  that  form  of  expression  is  not  elegant, 
nor  classical."     "  The  people   will  understand  it^'  wa^s 


60  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

his  invariable  reply.  And  whatever  may  be  said  of 
his  State  papers,  as  compared  with  the  diplomatic 
standards,  it  has  been  a  fact  that  they  have  always 
been  wonderfully  well  understood  by  the  people,  and 
that  since  the  time  of  Washington,  the  State  papers 
of  no  President  have  more  controlled  the  popular 
mind.  And  one  reason  for  this  is,  that  they  have  been 
informal  and  undiplomatic.  They  have  more  resem- 
bled a  father's  talks  to  his  children  than  a  State  paper. 
And  they  have  had  that  relish  and  smack  of  the  soil, 
that  appeal  to  the  simple  human  heart  and  head,  which 
is  a  greater  power  in  writing  than  the  most  artful  cler- 
ices  of  rhetoric.  Lincoln  might  well  say  with  the 
apostle,  "But  though  I  be  rude  in  speech  yet  not  in 
knowledge,  but  we  have  been  thoroughly  made  man- 
ifest among  you  in  all  things."  His  rejection  of  what 
is  called  fine  writing,  was  as  deliberate  as  St.  Paul's, 
and  for  the  same  reason — because  he  felt  that  he  was 
speaking  on  a  subject  which  must  be  made  clear  to 
the  lowest  intellect,  though  it  should  fail  to  captivate 
the  highest.  But  we  say  of  Lincoln's  writings,  that 
for  all  true,  manly  purposes  of  writing,  there  are  pas- 
sages in  his  State  papers  that  could  not  be  better  put 
— they  are  absolutely  perfect.  They  are  brief,  con- 
densed, intense,  and  with  a  power  of  insight  and  ex- 
pression which  make  them  worthy  to  be  inscribed  in 
letters  of  gold.  Such  are  some  passages  of  the  cele- 
brated letter  to  the  Springfield  convention,  especially 
that  masterly  one  where  he  compares  the  conduct  of 
the  patriotic  and  loyal  blacks  with  that  of  the  treach- 
erous and  disloyal  Avhites.  No  one  can  read  this  let- 
ter and  especially  the  passage  mentioned,  without  feel- 


HIS  life's  lesson.  61 

ing  the  influence  of  a  mind  both  strong  and  generous. 
"Peace  does  not  appear  so  distant  as  it  did.  I  hope 
it  will  come  soon  and  come  to  stay ;  and  so  come  as 
to  be  worth  the  keeping  in  all  future  time.  It  will 
then  have  been  proved  that  among  freemen  there  can 
be  no  successful  appeal  from  the  ballot  to  the  bullet, 
and  that  they  who  take  such  appeal  are  sure  to  lose 
their  case  and  pay  the  cost.  And  then  there  will  be 
some  black  men  who  can  remember  that  with  silent 
tongue,  and  clenched  teeth,  and  steady  eye,  and  well- 
poised  bayonet,  they  have  helped  mankind  on  to  this 
srreat  consummation,  while  I  fear  there  will  be  some 
white  ones  unable  to  forget  that  with  malignant  heart 
and  deceitful  speech  they  have  striven  to  hinder  it." 

The  lesson  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  career  as  President,  is 
a  manifold  one.  He  was  in  a  strangely  full  and  close 
manner  the  exponent,  the  representative,  the  federal 
head,  the  voice,  the  plenary  agent,  of  the  people  of 
the  United  States.  As  such,  his  life  teaches  what  the 
war  teaches,  to  wit ;  the  strength  and  the  magnificent 
morality  of  an  intelligent  people,  trained  in  self-control, 
in  thought,  in  the  doctrines  of  justice  and  freedom, 
and  in  the  fear  of  God. 

As  one  man's  life,  the  life  of  Mr.  Lincoln  after  his 
election  is  simply  the  picture  over  again,  on  a  gigan- 
tic scale,  in  stronger  colors,  in  bolder  relief,  of  the 
same  courage,  devotion,  strength,  industry,  energy, 
sense,  decision,  kindness,  caution,  instinctive  feeling 
of  what  was  right  and  what  was  practicable,  and  de- 
liberate execution  of  it,  that  had  marked  his  career 
before,  as  the  political  leader  in  a  great  state  contro- 
versy, and  as  a  laborious  lawyer  at  the  bar.     As  he 


62  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

mounted  upon  a  higher  plane  of  action,  his  views  be- 
came enlarged  and  elevated.  Especially  is  it  noticea- 
ble how  as  President,  he  was  very  much  more  open 
and  specific  in  avowing  an  immediate  dependence  up- 
on help  higher  than  man's,  in  doing  the  work  before 
him.  Mr.  Lincoln  was  naturally  inclined  to  religious 
feelings.  His  habit  of  considering  all  the  affairs  of 
life  from  the  religious  point  of  view,  at  the  tribunal 
of  the  laws  of  God,  is  clearly  traceable  in  his  private 
history  and  even  in  his  political  campaigns.  He  was 
not  obtrusive  nor  unreasonable  however  in  avowals 
of  this  feeling.  It  would  have  been  out  of  place  to 
request  the  prayers  of  his  fellow  citizens  during  the 
debates  with  Douglas,  almost  as  much  as  to  ask  the 
pravers  of  the  jury  while  arguing  a  case.  But 
while  placed  at  the  head  of  his  nation,  during  the 
vastest  peril  of  its  existence — while  occupying  the 
most  prominent,  the  most  powerful,  the  most  respon- 
sible, the  most  difficult,  and  the  most  dangerous  posi- 
tion upon  the  whole  round  world — while  at  the  very 
front  of  the  very  vanguard  of  humanity  in  the  great 
battle  which  was  deciding  whether  good  or  evil  should 
overcome — in  such  a  position,  no  avowals  of  the  need 
of  Divine  aid,  no  repetition  of  the  consciousness  of 
that  need,  no  requests  for  the  sympathy  and  the  help 
of  all  good  men's  prayers,  could  be  too  frequent  or 
too  free.  This  profound  sense  of  human  weakness 
and  of  God's  strength,  and  a  distinct  sentiment  of 
mournful  foreboding,  give  the  whole  coloring  to  the 
brief  address  in  which  he  bade  good  bye  to  his  neigh- 
bors at  Springfield,  at  setting  out  for  Washington  in 
1861. 


HIS   RELIGIOUS   FEELINGS.  63 

This  habit  of  religions  feeling,  and  the  avowal  of  it, 
remained  a  very  marked  one  during  all  Mr.  Lincoln's 
Presidency.  Subordinate  to  this,  the  acts  of  his  offic- 
ial life,  his  written  and  spoken  utterances,  and  his 
personal  conduct,  were  mainly  marked  by  solicitous 
and  extreme  sense  of  duty,  unfailing  resolution,  un- 
erring tact  and  wisdom,  and  a  kindness  and  patience 
entirely  unparalleled  in  the  history  of  governments. 
These  traits  were  often  hidden  by  his  quaint  modes  of 
expression,  by  the  wonderful  flow  of  humorous  anec- 
dotes which  he  so  constantly  used  in  arguing,  in  an- 
swering, in  evading,  or  for  entertainment ;  and  by  his 
confirmed  habit  of  arguing  all  questions  against  him- 
self, against  his  own  views,  before  coming  to  a  con- 
clusion. These  externals  often  concealed  him,  often 
occasioned  him  to  be  misunderstood,  distrusted,  and 
opposed.  It  was  only  as  time  passed  on,  and  his  pub- 
lic acts  gradually  formed  themselves  into  his  his- 
tory, that  it  was  possible  for  those  broad  and  massive 
characteristics  to  be  seen  in  a  just  perspective.  Now 
however,  they  are  visible  throughout  all  his  life, 
whether  traced  in  anecdote,  in  speech,  in  state  papers, 
in  cabinet  debates,  in  intercourse  with  the  representa- 
tives of  bodies  of  the  people,  or  in  executive  orders 
and  acts. 

Of  all  these  traits,  Mr.  Lincoln's  kindness  was  un- 
questionably the  rarest,  the  most  wonderful.  It  may 
be  doubted  whether  any  human  being  ever  lived 
whose  whole  nature  was  so  perfectly  sweet  with  the 
readiness  to  do  kind  actions ;  so  perfectly  free  from 
even  the  capacity  of  revenge.  He  could*  not  even 
leave  a  pig  in  distress.     He  once  on  circuit,  drove 


64  ABRAH.4.M     LINCOLN. 

past  a  pig,  stuck  fast  in  a  mud  hole.  Having  oh  a 
suit  of  new  clothes,  he  felt  unable  to  afford  them  for 
the  pig,  but  after  going  two  miles,  he  could  not  stand 
it,  turned  and  drove  back,  made  a  platform  of  rails, 
helped  out  the  pig,  spoiled  his  new  clothes,  and 
then  went  contentedly  about  his  business.  He  used 
to  help  his  poor  clients  with  money — a  ridiculous 
thing  in  a  lawyer.  He  was  quite  as  helpless  about 
traitors  and  deserters  and  criminals,  as  about  pigs ;  even 
when  pardoning  or  non-retaliation  was  actually  doing 
harm.  The  beseechings  and  tears  of  women,  the  sight 
of  a  little  child,  even  a  skilful  picture  of  the  sorrow 
of  a  scoundrel's  friends,  was  almost  certain  to  gain 
whatever  favor  they  sought.  It  really  sometimes  seemed 
as  if  he  was  tenderer  of  individual  lives  than  of  mul- 
titudes of  them,  so  nearly  impossible  was  it  for  him 
to  pronounce  sentence  of  death  or  to  forbear  the  gift 
of  life.  His  doorkeeper  had  standing  orders  never  to 
delay  from  one  day  to  another  any  message  asking  for 
the  saving  of  life.  He  undoubtedly  did  harm  by  giv- 
ing life  to  deserters,  and  thus  weakening  army  disci- 
pline. He  heard  a  child  cry  in  his  anteroom  one  day, 
and  calling  his  usher,  had  the  woman  that  carried  the 
child  shown  in.  She  had  been  waiting*  three  days,  by 
some  mischance.  Her  husband  was  to  be  shot  She 
stated  her  case  ;  the  pardon  was  at  once  granted ;  she 
came  out  of  the  office  praying  and  weeping ;  and  the 
old  usher,  touching  her  shawl,  told  her  who  had  really 
saved  her  husband's  life.  "Madam,"  said  he,  "the 
baby  did  it." 

One    of  his  generals   once  urgently  remonstrated 
with  him  for  rendering  desertion  safe,  though  it  was 


fflS    KINDNESS.  65 

seriously  weakening  the  army.  "  Mr.  General,"  said 
Mr.  Lincoln,  "there  are  already  too  many  weeping  wid- 
ows in  the  United  States.  For  God's  sake  don't  ask 
me  to  add  to  the  number,  for  I  won't  do  it."  Even 
to  put  a  stop  to  the  unutterable  horrors  which  were 
slowly  murdering  our  brave  men  in  the  rebel  prisons, 
he  could  not  retaliate.  He  said,  "  I  can  never,  never 
starve  men  like  that.  Whatever  others  may  say  or  do, 
I  never  can,  and  I  never  will,  be  accessory  to  such 
treatment  of  human  beings."  Once,  after  the  massa- 
cre at  Fort  Pillow,  he  pledged  himself  in  a  public 
speech  that  there  should  be  a  retaliation.  But  that 
pledge  he  could  not  keep,  and  he  did  not. 

His  perfectly  sweet  kindness  of  feeling  was  as  inex- 
haustible towards  the  rebels  as  such,  as  towards  dumb 
beasts,  or  the  poor  and  unfortunate  of  his  own  loyal 
people,  and  it  was  shown  as  clearly  in  his  state  papers 
and  speeches  as  in  any  private  act  or  word.  That 
sentiment,  and  one  other — the  unconditional  deter- 
mination to  adhere  to  the  doctrines  of  the  Declaration 
of  Independence  and  to  do  his  sworn  official  duty — 
colored  the  series  of  speeches  which  he  made  on  his 
way  to  Washington.  At  Philadelphia,  where  he  was 
especially  impressed  with  associations  about  the  old  In: 
dependence  Hall,  he  said,  speaking  of  that  edifice, 
and  standing  within  the  old  Hall  itself: 

"All  the  political  sentiments  I  entertain  have  been 
drawn,  so  far  as  I  have  been  able  to  draw  them,  from 
the  sentiments  which  originated  in  and  were  given  to 
the  world  from  this  hall.  I  have  never  had  a  feeling, 
politically,  that  did  not  spring  from  the  sentiments 
embodied  in  the  Declaration  of  Independence." 


66  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

Then  he  referred  to  the  doctrine  of  freedom  in  that 
instrument ;  and  he  said : 

"But  if  this  country  can  not  be  saved  without  giving 
up  that  principle,  I  was  about  to  say  I  would  rather 
be  assassinated  in  this  spot  than  surrender  it.  *  *  * 
I  have  said  nothing  but  what  I  am  willing  to  live  by, 
and  if  it  be  the  pleasure  of  Almighty  God,  to  die  by." 

These  references  to  assassination  and  death,  were  no 
casual  flourishes  of  oratory.  They  were  deliberate 
defiances  of  the  fate  which  had  alreadv  been  de- 
nounced  against  the  speaker,  in  public  and  in  private, 
which  continued  to  be  threatened  during  all  the  rest 
of  his  life,  and  which  finally  actually  befel  him,  but 
the  fear  of  which  never  made  him  turn  pale  nor  waver 
in  his  duty.  He  began  as  soon  as  he  was  nominated, 
to  receive  anonymous  letters  from  the  South  threaten- 
ing him  with  death.  They  became  so  frequent  that 
he  kept  a  separate  file  of  them.  They  continued  to 
come,  up  to  the  year  of  his  death.  The  first  one  or 
two,  he  said,  made  him  *•'  a  little  uncomfortable ;  "  but 
afterwards  he  only  filed  them.  The  train  on  which 
he  left  home  for  the  East,  was  to  have  been  thrown 
off  the  track.  A  hand  grenade  was  hidden  in  one 
of  the  cars.  An  association  was  known  to  exist  at 
Baltimore  for  the  express  purpose  of  killing  him. 
When  therefore  he  spoke  as  he  did  at  Philadelphia,  it 
was  doubtless  with  a  feeling  that  some  one  concerned 
in  these  plans  was  probably  hearing  him,  and  under- 
standing him.  It  was,  no  doubt,  at  the  same  time  a 
sort  of  vow,  taken  upon  himself  under  the  feelings 
aroused  by  the  birth-place  of  the  Declaration  which 
he  had  so  often  and  so  well  defended.     Whether  a 


THE    FIRST    INAUGURAL.  67 

challenge,  a  vow,  or  a  mere  statement  of  principle,  he 
kept  his  word.     He  lived  by  it,  and  he  died  by  it. 

The  same  mixture  of  firmness  and  kindness  appears 
in  the  First  Inaugural,  and  in  this  document  there  is 
also  another  most  characteristic  element ; — circumspect 
adherence  to  the  Constitution  as  he  understood  it,  and 
most  remarkable  care  and  skill  in  the  language  used 
to  interpret  law,  or  to  announce  his  own  conclusions 
or  purposes.  Lover  of  freedom  as  he  was,  and  be- 
liever in  the  rights  of  man,  he  had  already  been  inva- 
riably careful  not  to  demand  from  the  masses  of  men 
whom  he  sought  to  influence,  more  than  they  could  be 
expected  to  give.  Now,  he  went  even  further.  lie 
expressly  and  clearly  avowed  his  intention  to  execute 
all  that  he  had  sworn,  even  the  laws  most  distasteful 
to  any  freeman.  In  speaking  of  the  crisis  of  the  mo- 
ment, and  after  setting  forth  his  doctrine  of  national 
sovereignty  and  an  unbroken  Union,  'he  promised  to. 
maintain  it  as  far  as  he  could,  and  added : 

"Doing  this  I  deem  to  be  only  a  simple  duty  on  my 
part ;  and  I  shall  perform  it  so  far  as  practicable,  un- 
less my  rightful  masters,  the  American  people,  shall 
withhold  the  requisite  means,  or  in  some  authoritative 
manner  direct  the  contrary." 

Then,  as  if  to  avert  ill  feeling  if  possible,: 

"I  trust  this  will  not  be  regarded  as  a  menace,  but 
only  as  the  declared  purpose  of  the  Union,  that  it  will 
constitutionallv  defend  and  maintain  itself" 

Then,  with  careful  adherence  to  the  mildest  terms 
possible — could  anything  be  a  more  peaceful  assertion 
of  national  right  than  the  simple  "hold,  occupy  and 
possess" ? — he  says  what  the  nation  will  do: 


68  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

"In  doing  this  there  need  be  no  bloodshed  or  vio- 
lence, and  there  shall  be  none,  unless  it  be  forced  upon 
the  national  authority.  The  power  confided  to  me 
will  be  used  to  hold,  occupy  and  possess  the  property 
and  places  belonging  to  the  government,  and  to  col- 
lect the  duties  and  imposts  ;  but  beyond  what  may  be 
necessary  for  these  objects,  there  will  be  no  invasion, 
no  using  of  force  against  or  among  the  people  any- 
where." 

The  remainder  of  the  Inaugural  is  just  such  a  kindly, 
homely,  earnest,  sincere,  straight-forward  appeal  to 
the  South,  as  he  might  have  made  in  a  country  court- 
house in  Illinois,  "taking  off'  his  coat,  leaning  upon 
the  rail  of  the  jury  box,  and  singling  out  a  leading 
juryman  and  addressing  him  in  a  conversational  tone." 
Having  stated  the  case,  and  once  more  barely  repeated 
that  it  was  "  his  duty  to  administer  the  present  gov- 
ernment as  it  came  to  his  hands,  and  to  transmit  it 
unimpaired  by  him  to  his  successor,"  he  then  quietly 
but  powerfully  appeals  to  his  ow-n  two  life-long  trusts, 
God  Almighty,  and  the  free  people  of  America.  He 
asks: 

"  Why  should  there  not  be  a  patient  confidence  in 
the  ultimate  justice  of  the  people  ?  Is  there  any  bet- 
ter or  equal  hope  in  the  world  ?  In  our  present  dif- 
ferences, is  either  party  without  faith  of  being  in  the 
right  ?  If  the  Almighty  Ruler  of  nations,  with  his 
eternal  truth  and  justice,  be  on  your  side  of  the  North, 
or  on  yours  of  the  South,  that  truth  and  that  justice 
will  surely  prevail,  by  the  judgment  of  the  great  tri- 
bunal of  the  American  people." 

And  the  final  paragraphs  are  sad  and  heavy  with  his 


THE    FIRST   IX AUGURAL.  69 

unutterable  longings  and  yearnings  for  peace ;  so  that 
the  words,  plain  and  simple  as  they  are,  are  full  of 
deep  and  melancholy  music : 

"  You  can  have  no  conflict  without  being  yourselves 
the  aggressors.  You  have  no  oath  registered  in 
heaven  to  destroy  the  government,  while  I  shall  have 
the  most  solemn  one,  to  'preserve,  protect  and  de- 
fend' it. 

I  am  loth  to  close.  We  are  not  enemies,  but  fi'iends. 
We  must  not  be  enemies.  Though  passion  may  have 
strained,  it  must  not  break  our  bonds  of  affection. 
The  mystic  cord  of  memory,  stretching  from  every 
battle-field  and  patriot  grave  to  every  living  heart  and 
hearthstone  all  over  this  broad  land,  will  yet  swell  the 
chorus  of  the  Union,  when  again  touched,  as  surely 
they  will  be,  by  the  better  angels  of  our  nature." 

As  the  war  went  on,  the  same  unwavering  decision, 
the  same  caution  and  kindness  marked  the  whole  ac- 
tion of  the  Executive.  Especially  were  these  traits 
exhibited  in  his  dealings  with  the  main  question  at 
issue,  that  of  slavery. 

On  this  point  he  bore  a  pressure  such  as  it  is  safe  to 
say  no  mortal  son  of  earth  ever  bore  before  or  since. 
The  interests  of  the  great  laboring,  suffering  classes 
that  go  to  make  up  human  nature,  were  all  at  this  pe- 
riod of  history  condensed  into  one  narrow  channel, 
like  that  below  Niagara  where  the  waters  of  all  the 
great  lakes  are  heaped  up  in  ridges,  and  seem,  in 
Scripture  language,  to  "utter  their  voices  and  lift  up 
their  hands  on  high."  Like  the  course  of  those  heavy 
waters  the  great  cause  weltered  into  a  place  where 
its  course  resembled  that  sullen  whirlpool  below  the 


ABRAHAil   LINCOLN. 

falls  where  the  awful  waters  go  round  and  round  in 
blindly,  dizzy  masses,  and  seem  with  dumb  tossings 
and  dark  agonies  to  seek  in  vain  for  a  clear,  open 
channel.  In  this  dread  vortex,  from  time  to  time  are 
seen  whirling  helplessly  the  bodies  of  drowned  men, 
fragments  of  wrecked  boats  splintered  and  shattered, 
and  trees  torn  to  ghastly  skeletons,  which  from  time 
to  time  dart  up  from  the  whirling  abyss  with  a  sort 
of  mad,  impatient  despair. 

So  we  can  all  remember  when  the  war  had  strug- 
gled on  a  year  or  two — when  a  hundred  thousand 
men,  the  life  and  light  and  joy  of  as  many  families, 
who  entered  it  warm  with  hope  and  high  in  aspira- 
tion, were  all  lying  cold  and  low,  and  yet  without  the 
least  apparent  progress  towards  a  result — when  the 
resistance  only  seemed  to  have  become  wider,  deeper, 
more  concentrated,  better  organized,  by  all  that  awful 
waste  of  the  best  treasures  of  the  nation ;  then  was 
the  starless  night — the  horror  of  the  valley  of  the 
shadow  of  death.  Above,  darkness  filled  with  whis- 
perings, and  jibes,  and  sneers  of  traitor  fiends;  on  one 
side  a  pit,  on  the  other  a  quagmire,  and  in  the  gloom 
all  faces  gathered  blackness,  and  even  friends  and  par- 
tisans looked  strangely  on  each  other.  Confidence  be- 
gan to  be  shaken.  Each  separate  party  blamed  the 
other  as  they  wandered  in  the  darkness.  It  was  one 
of  the  strange  coincidences  which  show  the  eternal 
freshness  of  Scripture  language  in  relation  to  human 
events,  that  the  church  lesson  from  the  Old  Testament 
which  was  read  in  the  churches  the  Sunday  after  the 
attack  on  Sumter,  was  the  prediction  of  exactly  such 
a  conflict: 


THE    SHADOW    OF    DEA.TH.  71 

"  Prepare  war,  wake  up  the  mighty  men,  let  all  the 
men  of  war  draw  near ;  let  them  come  up : 

Beat  your  plough-shares  mto  swords,  and  your  prun- 
ing-hooks  into  spears :  let  the  weak  say,  I  am  strong. 

Assemble  yourselves,  and  come,  all  ye  heathen,  and 
gather  yourselves  together  round  about :  thither  cause 
thy  mighty  ones  to  come  down,  0  Lord. 

Put  ye  in  the  sickle,  for  the  harvest  is  ripe :  the 
press  is  full,  the  fats  overflow;  for  their  wickedness  is 
great. 

Multitudes,  multitudes  in  the  valley  of  decision :  for 
the  day  of  the  Lord  is  near  in  the  valley  of  decision. 

Tlie  sun  and  the  moon  shall  he  darkened,  and  the 
stars  shall  withdratv  their  shining.  The  Lord  also 
shall  roar  out  of  Zion,  and  utter  his  voice  from  Jeru- 
salem ;  and  the  heavens  and  the  earth  shall  shake : 
but  the  Lord  ivill  be  the  hope  of  his  people,  and  the 
strength  of  the  chikken  of  Israel.  So  shall  ye  know 
that  I  am  the  Lord  your  God." 

The  repeated  defeats,  disa.sters,  and  distresses  that 
had  come  upon  the  Union  cause  stirred  the  conscience 
of  all  the  religious  portion  of  the  community.  They 
remembered  the  parallels  in  the  Old  Testament  where 
the  armies  of  Israel  were  turned  back  before  the 
heathen,  because  they  cherished  within  themselves 
some  accursed  thing — they  began  to  ask  whether  the 
Achan  who  had  stolen  th*^  wedge  of  gold  and  Baby- 
lonish vest  in  our  midst  was  not  in  truth  the  cause 
why  God  would  not  go  forth  with  our  armies !  and 
the  pressure  upon  Lincoln  to  end  the  strife  by  declar- 
ing emancipation,  became  every  day  more  stringent ; 
at  the  same  time  the  pressure  of  every  opposing  party 
became  equally  intense,  and  Lincoln  by  his  peculiar 


72  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

nature  and  habits,  must  listen  to  all,  and  take  time  to 
ponder  and  weigh  all.  In  consequence  there  was  a 
time  when  he  pleased  nobody.  Each  party  was  in- 
censed at  the  degree  of  attention  he  gave  to  the  other. 
He  might  say,  in  the  language  of  the  old  prophet,  at 
this  time,  "Woe  is  me,  my  mother,  that  thou  hast 
borne  me  a  man  of  strife,  and  a  man  of  contention 
to  the  whole  earth!  I  have  neither  lent  on  usury, 
nor  men  have  lent  to  me  on  usury ;  yet  every  one  of 
them  doth  curse  me."  He  was,  like  the  great  Mas- 
ter whom  he  humbly  followed,  despised  and  reject- 
ed of  men,  a  man  of  sorrows  and  acquainted  with 
grief;  we  hid,  as  it  were,  our  faces  from  him,  he 
was  despised,  and  we  esteemed  him  not.  Like  the 
poor,  dumb,  suffering,  down-trodden  classes  for  whom 
he  stood,  he  had  no  prestige  of  personal  advantages, 
or  of  that  culture  which  comes  from  generations  of 
wealth  and  ease.  His  method  of  thought  and  expres- 
sion had  not  the  stamp  of  any  old  aristocratic  tradi- 
tion. He  was  a  sign  upon  the  earth — the  sign  and 
the  leader  of  a  new  order  of  events  in  which  the 
power  and  the  prestige  should  be  in  the  hands  of  the 
plain,  simple  common  people,  and  not  in  those  of 
privileged  orders.  But  the  time  had  not  yet  come, 
and  now  was  their  hour  of  humiliation,  and  while  in 
England  the  poor  operatives  of  Manchester  bravely 
and  manfully  bore  starvation  caused  by  want  of  cot- 
ton, rather  than  ask  their  government  to  break  the 
.  blockade  and  get  it  for  them ;  while  the  poor  silk 
weavers  of  Lyons,  and  the  poorer  classes  all  over  Eu- 
rope trembled,  and  hoped,  and  sympathised  with  the 
struggling  cause  and  its  unfashionable  leader — all  the 


THE    SHADOW    OF    DEATH.  73 

great,  gay,  successful,  fashionable  world  went  the  other 
way.  Punch  had  his  jolly  caricatures  of  Lincoln's 
long,  thin  face,  and  anxious  perplexities,  and  the  car- 
icatures of  Paris  were  none  the  less  merry.  Even  in 
America  there  was  a  time  when  some  of  his  most 
powerful  friends  doubted  his  fitness  for  his  position, 
and  criticisms  filled  the  columns  of  every  newspaper. 
In  Washington,  every  fop  and  every  fool  felt  at  liberty 
to  make  a  jest  at  the  expense  of  his  want  of  dignity, 
and  his  personal  awkwardness.  He  was  freely  called 
an  ape,  a  satyr,  a  stupid  blockhead,  for  even  the  ass 
can  kick  safely  and  joyfully  at  a  lion  in  a  net.  Even 
his  cabinet  and  best  friends  said  nothing  for  him,  and 
kept  an  ominous  and  gloomy  silence. 

Lincoln  knew  all  this,  and  turned  it  over  in  the 
calm  recesses  of  his  mind,  with  a  quiet  endurance, 
gilded  at  times  by  a  gleam  of  the  grim,  solemn  humor 
peculiar  to  himself  "I  cannot  make  generals,"  he 
said  once,  "I  would  if  I  could."  At  another,  to  an 
important  man  w^io  had  been  pressing  some  of  his 
own  particular  wisdom  upon  him,  "Perhaps  you'd  like 
to  try  to  run  the  machine  yourself"  Somebody  gave 
him  a  series  of  powerful  criticisms  which  a  distinguished 
writer  had  just  poured  forth  on  him.  "  I  read  them 
all  through,"  he  said  quaintly,  "and  then  I  said  to 
myself,  Well,  Abraham  Lincoln,  are  you  a  man,  or  are 
you  a  dog?" 

No  man  in  the  great  agony  suffered  more  or  deeper, 
but  it  was  with  a  dry,  weary,  patient  pain,  that  many 
mistook  for  insensibility.  "Whichever  way  it  ends," 
he  said  to  the  writer,  on  one  occasion,  "I  have  the 
impression  that  I  shan't  last  long  after  it's  over." 


74  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

After  the  dreadful  repulse  at  Fredericksburg,  lie  is 
reported  to  have  said,  "If  there  is  a  man  out  of  hell 
that  suffers  more  than  I  do,  I  pity  him."  In  those 
dark  days,  his  heavy  eyes  and  worn  and  weary  air 
told  how  our  reverses  wore  upon  him,  and  yet  there 
was  a  never  failing  fund  of  patience  at  bottom  that  some- 
times rose  to  the  surface  in  bubbles  of  quaint  sayings  or 
a  story  that  forced  a  laugh  even  from  himself  The  hu- 
mor of  Lincoln  was  the  oil  that  lubricated  the  other- 
wise dry  and  wiry  machinery  of  his  mind.  The  pow- 
er of  looking  at  men  and  things  with  reference  to 
their  humorous  side,  enabled  him  to  bear  without 
irritation  many  things  in  the  political  joltings  and 
jarrings  of  his  lot,  which  would  have  driven  a  more 
nervous  man  frantic.  It  is  certainly  a  great  advantage 
to  be  so  made  that  one  can  laugh  at  times  when  cry- 
ing will  do  no  good,  and  Lincoln  not  only  had  his  own 
laugh  in  the  darkest  days,  but  the  w^herewithal  to 
bring  a  laugh  from  a  weary  neighbor.  His  jests  and 
stories  helped  off  many  a  sorry  hour,  and  freshened 
the  heart  of  his  hearer  for  another  pull  in  the  galling 
harness. 

He  saw  through  other  men  who  thought  all  the 
while  they  were  instructing  or  enlightening  him,  with 
a  sort  of  dry,  amused  patience.  He  allowed  the  most 
tedious  talker  to  prose  to  him,  the  most  shallow  and 
inflated  to  advise  him,  reserving  only  to  himself  the 
right  to  a  quiet  chuckle  far  down  in  the  depths  of  his 
private  consciousness.  Thus  all  sorts  of  men  and  all 
sorts  of  deputations  saw  him,  had  their  talks,  bestowed 
on  him  all  their  tediousness,  and  gave  him  the  benefit 
of  their  opinions ;  not  a  creature  was  denied  access, 


THE    SHADOW    OF    DEATH.  75 

n-ot  a  soul  so  lowly  but  miglit  have  their  chance  to 
bore  the  soul  of  this  more  lowly  servant  of  the  peo- 
ple. His  owm  little,  private,  quiet,  harmless  laugh 
"was  his  small  comfort  under  all  these  inflictions. 
Sometimes  the  absolute  confidence  with  which  all 
contending  sides  urged  their  opinions  and  measures 
upon  him,  seemed  to  strike  him  with  a  solemn  sense 
of  the  ludicrous.  Thus  when  Dr.  Cheever,  at  the 
head  of  a  committee  of  clergymen,  had  been  making 
a  vigorous,  authoritative  appeal  to  him  in  Old  Testa- 
ment language,  to  end  all  difficulties  by  emancipation, 
Lincoln  seemed  to  meditate  gravely,  and  at  last  an- 
swered slowly,  "Well,  gentlemen,  it  is  not  very  often 
that  one  is  favored  w4th  a  delegation  direct  from  the 
Almighty  !" 

Washington,  at  this  time,  was  one  great  hospital  of 
wounded  soldiers ;  the  churches,  the  public  buildings 
all  filled  with  the  maimed,  the  sick  and  suffering,  and 
Lincoln's  only  diversion  from  the  perplexity  of  state 
was  the  oversight  of  these  miseries.  -  "Where  do  you 
dine?"  said  one  to  him  in  our  hearing.  "Well,  I 
don't  dine,  I  just  browse  round  a  little,  now  and 
then."  There  was  something  irresistibly  quaint  and 
pathetic  in  the  odd,  rustic  tone  in  which  this  was 
spoken. 

Even  the  Emancipation  Proclamation — that  one  flag 
stone  in  the  wide  morass  of  despondency  on  which 
the  wearied  man  at  last  set  firm  foothold,  did  not  at 
first  seem  to  be  a  first  step  into  the  land  of  promise. 

It  was  uttered  too  soon  to  please  some  parties,  too 
late  to  please  others.  In  England  it  was  received  m 
the  face  of'  much  military  ill  success,  with  the  scoffing 


76  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

epigram  that  the  President  had  proclaimed  liberty  in 
the  states  where  he  had  no  power,  and  retained  slavery 
in  those  where  he  had.  It  is  true  there  was  to  this 
the  sensible  and  just  reply  that  he  only  gained  the 
right  to  emancipate  by  this  war  power,  and  that  of 
course  this  did  not  exist  in  states  that  were  not  at  war ; 
but  when  was  ever  a  smart  saying  stopped  in  its 
course  by  the  slow  considerations  and  explanations  of 
truth  ? 

The  battle  of  Gettysburg  was  the  first  argument 
that  began  to  convince  mankind  that  Mr.  Lincoln  was 
right.  It  has  been  well  said,  that  in  this  world  noth- 
ing succeeds  but  success.  Bonaparte  professed  his 
belief  that  Providence  always  went  with  the  strongest 
battalions,  and  therein  he  expressed  about  the  average 
opinion  of  this  world.  Vicksburg  and  Gettysburg 
changed  the  whole  face  of  the  nation — they  were 
the  first  stations  outside  of  the  valley  of  the  shadow  of 
death. 

The  nation  took  new  courage — even  the  weary 
clamorers  for  peace  at  any  price,  began  to  shout  on  the 
right  side,  and  to  hope  that  peace  might  come  through 
northern  victory,  and  so  it  did  come,  they  did  not  care 
how. 

Whereas  a  few  months  before,  Lincoln  was  univer- 
sally depreciated,  doubted,  scoffed  and  scorned,  now 
he  found  himself  re-elected  to  the  Presidential  chair, 
by  an  overwhelming  majority.  It  was  in  fact  almost 
an  election  by  acclamation.  When  the  votes  were  be- 
ing counted  in  New  York  late  at  night,  and  this  vic- 
tory became  apparent,  the  vast  surging  assembly  at 
the  motion  of  one  individual,  uncovered  their  heads 


THE    SECOND    IXAUGURAL*.  77 

and  sang  a~  solemn  Doxology — an  affecting  incident 
which  goes  far  to  show  what  sort  of  feelings  lay  at  the 
bottom  of  this  vast  movement,  and  how  profoundly 
the  people  felt  that  this  re-election  of  Lincoln  was  a 
vital  step  in  their  onward  progress. 

At  this  hour  the  nation  put  the  broad  seal  of  its  ap- 
probation on  all  his  past  course.  At  this  moment  she 
pledged  herself  to  follow  him  and  him  alone  to  the 
end. 

Perhaps  never  was  man  re-elected  who  used  fewer 
of  popular  arts — made  fewer  direct  efforts.  He  was  in- 
deed desirous  to  retain  the  place,  for  though  he  esti- 
mated himself  quite  humbly,  still  he  was  of  opinion 
that  on  the  whole  his  was  as  safe  a  hand  as  any,  and 
he  had  watched  the  navigation  so  far  as  to  come  to 
love  the  hard  helm,  at  which  he  had  stood  so  pain- 
fully. In  his  usual  quaint  way  he  expressed  his  idea 
by  a  backwoods  image.  Alluding  to  the  frequent  ford- 
ings  of  turbulent  streams  that  are  the  lot  of  the  west- 
ern traveller,  he  said,  "  It  is'nt  best  to  swap  horses 
in  the  middle  of  a  creek." 

There  was  something  almost  preternatural  in  the 
calmness  with  which  Lincoln  accepted  the  news  of  his 
re-election.  The  first  impulse  seemed  to  be  to  dis- 
claim all  triumph  over  the  opposing  party,  and  to  so- 
berly gird  up  his  loins  to  go  on  with  his  work  to  the 
end. 

His  last  inaugural  has  been  called  by  one  of  the 
London  newspapers  "  the  noblest  political  document 
known  to  history." 

It  was  characterized  by  a  solemn  religious  tone,  so 
peculiarly  free  from  earthly  passion,  that  it  seems  to 


78  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

US  now,  who  look  back  on  it  in  the  light  of  what  has 
followed,  as  if  his  soul  had  already  parted  from  earthly 
things,  and  felt  the  powers  of  the  world  to  come.  It 
was  not  the  formal  state-paper  of  the  chief  of  a  party 
in  an  hour  of  victory,  so  much  as  the  solemn  soliloquy 
of  a  great  soul  reviewing  its  course  under  a  vast  re- 
sponsibility, and  appealing  from  all  earthly  judgments 
to  the  tribunal  of  Infinite  Justice.  It  was  a  solemn 
clearing  of  his  soul  for  the  great  sacrament  of  death: 

^^ Fellow  Countrymen — At  this  second  appearing  to 
take  the  oath  of  the  Presidential  office,  there  is  less 
occasion  for  an  extended  address  than  there  was  at 
the  first.  Then  a  statement  somewhat  in  detail  of  a 
course  to  be  pursued  seemed  very  fitting  and  proper. 
Now,  at  the  expiration  of  four  years,  during  which 
public  declarations  have  been  constantly  called  forth 
on  every  point  and  phase,  of  the  great  contest  which 
still  absorbs  the  attention  and  engrosses  the  energies 
of  the  nation,  little  that  is  new  could  be  presented. 

The  progress  of  our  arms,  upon  which  all  else  chief- 
ly depends  is  as  well  known  to  the  public  as  to  my- 
self, and  it  is,  I  trust,  reasonably  satisfactory  and  en- 
couraging to  all.  With  high  hope  for  the  future,  no 
prediction  in  regard  to  it  is  ventured. 

On  the  occasion  corresponding  to  this  four  years 
ago,  all  thoughts  were  anxiously  directed  to  an  im- 
pending civil  war.  All  dreaded  it;  all  sought  to 
avoid  it.  While  the  inaugural  address  was  being  de- 
livered from  this  place,  devoted  altogether  to  saving 
the  Union  without  war,  insurgent  agents  were  in  the 
city  seeking  to  destroy  it  without  war — seeking  to  clis- 
solve  the  Union  and  divide  the  effects  by  negotiation. 


THE    SECOND    INAUGURAL.  79 

Botli  parties  deprecated  "war,  but  one  of  them  would 
make  war  rather  than  let  the  nation  survive,  and  the 
other  would  accept  war  rather  than  let  it  perish,  and 
the  war  came. 

One-eighth  of  the  whole  population  were  colored 
slaves,  not  distributed  generally  over  the  Union,  but 
localized  in  the  Southern  part  of  it.  These  slaves  con- 
stituted a  peculiar  and  powerful  interest.  All  knew 
that  this  interest  was  somehow  the  cause  of  the  war. 
To  strengthen,  perpetuate  and  extend  this  interest, 
was  the  object  for  which  the  insurgents  would  rend 
the  Union  even  by  war,  while  the  Government  claimed 
no  right  to  do  more  than  to  restrict  the  territorial  en- 
largement of  it. 

Neither  party  expected  for  the  war  the  magnitude 
or  the  duration  which  it  has  already  attained.  Neither 
anticipated  that  the  cause  of  the  conflict  might  cease 
with,  or  even  before  the  conflict  itself  should  cease. 
Each  looked  for  an  easier  triumph,  and  a  result  less 
fundamental  and  astounding. 

Both  read  the  same  Bible  and  prayed  to  the  same 
God,  and  each  invoke  his  aid  against  the  other.  It 
may  seem  strange  that  any  men  should  dare  to  ask  a 
just  God's  assistance  in  wringing  their  bread  from  the 
sweat  of  other  men's  faces,  but  let  us  judge  not,  that 
we  be  not  judged.  The  prayers  of  both  could  not  be 
answered.  That  of  neithei  has  been  answered  fully. 
The  Almighty  has  his  own  purposes.  '  Woe  unto  the 
world  because  of  offences,  for  it  must  needs  be  that 
offences  come :  but  woe  to  that  man  by  whom  the  of- 
fence comeih.'  If  we  shall  suppose  that  American 
slavery  is  one  of  these  offences,  which  in  the  provi- 


80  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

dence  of  God  must  needs  come,  but  winch  having  con- 
tinued through  his  appointed  time,  He  now  wills  to  re- 
move, and  that  he  gives  to  both  North  and  South  this 
terrible  war  as  the  woe  due  to  those  by  whom  the 
offence  came,  shall  we  discern  therein  any  departure 
from  those  divine  attributes  which  the  believers  in  a 
livine:  God  alwavs  ascribe  to  Him  ?  Fondly  do  we 
hope,  fervently  do  we  pray,  that  this  mighty  scourge 
of  war  may  soon  pass  away.  Yet,  if  God  wills  that 
it  continue  until  all  the  wealth  piled  by  the  bondman's 
two  hundred  and  fifty  years  of  unrequited  toil  shall  be 
sunk,  and  until  every  drop  of  blood  drawn  with  the 
lash  shall  be  paid  with  another  drawn  with  the  sword, 
as  was  said  three  thousand  years  ago  ;  so,  still  it  must 
be  said,  '  The  judgments  of  the  Lord  are  true  and 
ri^'hteous  altos-ether.' 

With  malice  toward  none,  with  charity  for  all,  with 
firmness  in  the  right,  as  God  gives  us  to  see  the  right, 
let  us  strive  on  to  finish  the  work  we  are  in,  to  bind 
up  the  nation's  wounds,  to  care  for  him  who  shall  have 
borne  the  battle  and  for  his  widow  and  orphans,  to  do 
all  which  may  achieve  and  cherish  a  just  and  a  lasting 
peace  among  ourselves  and  with  all  nations." 

The  words  of  Lincoln  seemed  to  grow  more  clear 
and  more  remarkable  as  they  approached  the  end. 
Perhaps  in  no  language,  ancient  or  modem,  are  any 
number  of  words  found  more  touching  and  eloquent 
than  his  speech  of  November  19,  1863,  at  the  Gettys- 
burg celebration.  He  wrote  it  in  a  few  moments, 
while  on  the  way  to  the  celebration,  on  being  told 
that  he  would  be  expected  to  make  some  remarks,  and 
after  Mr.  Everett's  oration  he  rose  and  read  it.  It  was 
as  follows: 


THE    GETTYSBURG    SPEECH.  81 

"  Fourscore  and  seven  years  ago,  our  fathers  brought 
forth  on  this  continent  a  new  nation,  conceived  in  lib- 
erty, and  dedicated  to  the  proposition  that  all  men  are 
created  equal.  Now,  we  are  engaged  in  a  great  civil 
war,  testing  whether  that  nation,  or  any  nation,  so 
conceived  and  dedicated,  can  long  endure.  We  are 
met  on  a  great  battle-field  of  that  war.  We  have 
come  to  dedicate  a  portion  of  that  field  as  a  final 
resting-place  for  those  who  here  gave  their  lives  that 
the  nation  might  live.  It  is  altogether  fitting  and 
proper  that  we  should  do  this. 

But  in  a  larger  sense,  we  cannot  dedicate,  n^e  cannot 
consecrate,  we  cannot  hallow,  this  ground.  The  brave 
men, living  and  dead,who  struggled  here,  liave  consecra- 
ted it  far  above  our  poor  power  to  add  or  detract.  The 
world  will  little  note,  nor  long  remember  what  we  say 
here,  but  it  can  never  forget  what  they  did  here.  It  is  for 
us,  the  living,  rather  to  be  dedicated  here  to  the  unfin- 
ished work  which  they  who  fought  here  have  thus  fiir 
so  nobly  advanced.  It  is  rather  for  us  to  be  here 
dedicated  to  the  great  task  remaining  before  us,  that 
from  these  honored  dead,  we  take  increased  devotion 
to  that  cause  for  which  they  gave  the  last  full  measure 
of  devotion ;  that  we  here  highly  resolve  that  these 
dead  shall  not  have  died  in  vain ;  that  this  nation, 
under  God,  shall  have  a  new  birth  of  freedom ;  and 
that  government  of  the  people,  hij  the  people,  aud/or 
the  people,  shall  not  perish  from  the  earth." 

The  audience  had  admired  Mr.  Everett's  long 
address.  At  Mr.  Lincoln's  few  words,  they  cheered 
and  sobbed  and  wept.  When  Mr.  Lincoln  had 
ended,    he    turned   and    congratulated    Mr.    Everett 


82  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN. 

on  having  succeeded  so  well.  Mr.  Everett  replied, 
with  a  truthful  and  real  compliment,  "Ah,  Mr.  Lin- 
coln, how  gladly  I  would  exchange  all  my  hundred 
pages,  to  have  been  the  author  of  your  twenty  lines!" 

Probably  no  ruler  ever  made  a  more  profoundly 
and  peculiarly  Christian  impression  on  the  mind  of  the 
world  than  Lincoln.  In  his  religious  faith  two  lead- 
ing ideas  were  prominent  from  first  to  last — man's 
helplessness,  both  as  to  strength  and  wisdom,  and  God's 
helpfulness  in  both.  When  he  left  Springfield  to  as- 
sume the  Presidency,  he  said  to  his  townsmen: 

"A  duty  devolves  on  me  which  is  perhaps  greater 
than  that  which  has  devolved  on  any  other  man  since  the 
days  of  Washington.  He  never  would  have  succeed- 
ed but  for  the  aid  of  divine  Providence,  on  which  he 
at  all  times  relied,  and  I  feel  that  I  cannot  succeed 
without  the  same  Divine  aid  which  sustained  him. 
On  the  same  Almighty  Being  I  place  my  reliance  for 
support,  and  I  hope  that  you,  my  friends,  will  pray 
that  I  may  receive  that  Divine  assistance,  without 
which  I  cannot  succeed,  but  with  which  success  is  cer- 
tain." 

Abraham  Lincoln's  whole  course  showed  that  he 
possessed  that  faith  without  which,  St.  Paul  says,  it  is 
impossible  to  please  God,  for  "he  that  cometh  to  God 
must  believe  that  He  is,  and  that  He  is  a  rewarder  of 
those  ivho  diligently  seek  him^ 

And  now  our  Christian  pilgrim  having  passed 
through  the  valley  of  the  shadow  of  death,  and  slain 
and  vanquished  giants  and  dragons,  at  last  had  a  little 
taste,  a  few  days  sojourn,  in  the  land  of  Beulah. 


THE   ENTRY    INTO    RICHMOND.  83 

Cheer  after  cheer  rose  up  and  shook  the  land  as  by 
one  great  stroke  after  another  the  awful  convulsions 
of  the  conflict  terminated  in  full,  perfect,  final  victory. 

Never  did  mortal  man  on  this  earth  have  a  triumph 
more  dramatic  and  astounding  than  Lincoln's  victori- 
ous entry  into  Richmond.  Years  before,  when  a 
humble  lawyer  in  Illinois,  a  man  without  prestige  of 
person  or  manners  or  education,  he  had  espoused 
what  the  world  called  the  losing  side,  and  been  con- 
tent to  take  the  up-hill,  laborious  road.  He  had  seen 
his  rival,  adorned  with  every  external  advantage  of 
person,  manners,  eloquence  and  oratory,  sweeping  all 
prizes  away  from  him,  and  ftir  distancing  him  in  the 
race  of  political  ambition. 

In  those  days,  while  confessing  that  he  had  felt  the 
promptings  of  ambition,  and  the  disappointment  of 
ill  success,  there  was  one  manly  and  noble  sentiment 
that  ought  to  be  printed  in  letters  of  gold,  as  the 
motto  of  every  rising  young  man.  Speaking  of  the 
distinction  at  which  Douglas  was  aiming,  he  said : 

"So  REACHED  AS  THAT  THE  OPPRESSED  OF  MY  SPE- 
CIES MIGHT  HAVE  EQUAL  REASON  TO  REJOICE  WITH  ME, 
I  SHOULD  VALUE  IT  MORE  THAN  THE  PROUDEST  CROWN 
THAT    COULD    DECK    THE    BROW    OF    A    MONARCH." 

At  this  moment  of  his  life  he  could  look  back  and 
see  far  behind  him  the  grave  of  the  once  brilliant 
Douglas,  who  died  worn  out  and  worn  down  with  dis- 
appointed ambition,  while  he,  twice  elected  to  the 
Presidency,  was  now  standing  the  observed  of  all  the 
world,  in  a  triumph  that  has  no  like  in  history. 
And  it  was  a  triumph  made  memorable  and  peculiar 
by  the  ecstacies  and  hallelujahs  of  those  very  oppress- 


8A  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

ed  witli  whose  care  years  before  lie  had  weighted  and 
burdened  his  progress.  It  was  one  of  those  earthly 
scenes  which  grandly  foreshadow  that  great  final  tri- 
umph predicted  in  prophecy,  when  the  Lord  God 
shall  wipe  away  all  tears  from  all  faces,  and  the  rebuke 
of  his  people  shall  he  utterly  take  away.  A  cotem- 
porary  witness  has  described  Lincoln,  calm  and  simple, 
leading  his  little  boy  by  the  hand,  while  the  liberated 
blacks  hailed  him  with  hymns  and  prayers,  mingling 
his  name  at  each  moment  with  ascriptions  of  praise 
and  glory  to  Jesus  the  Great  Liberator,  whose  day  at 
last  had  come.  Who  can  say  of  what  ages  of  mourn- 
ful praying  and  beseeching,  what  uplifting  of  poor, 
dumb  hands  that  hour  was  the  outcome  ?  Years  be- 
fore, a  clergyman  of  Virginia  visiting  the  black  insur- 
rectionist, Nat  Turner,  in  his  cell  before  execution, 
gives  the  following  wonderful  picture  of  him:  "Li 
rags,  in  chains,  covered  with  blood  and  bruises,  he 
yet  is  inspired  by  such  a  force  of  enthusiasm,  as  he 
lifts  his  chained  hands  to  heaven,  as  really  filled  my  soul 
with  awe.  It  is  impossible  to  make  him  feel  that  he  is 
guilty.  He  evidently  believes  that  he  was  called  of 
God  to  do  the  work  he  did.  When  I  pointed  out  to 
him  that  it  could  not  be,  because  he  was  taken,  con- 
demned, and  about  to  be  executed,  he  answered  with 
enthusiasm,  'Was  not  Jesus  Christ  crucified?  My 
cause  will  succeed  yet ! ' " 

Years  passed,  and  the  prophetic  visions  of  Nat  Tur- 
ner were  fulfilled  on  the  soil  of  Virginia.  It  did  in- 
deed rain  blood ;  the  very  leaves  of  the  trees  dripped 
blood ;  but  the  work  was  done^  the  yoke  was  broken, 
and  the  oppressed  went  free.     An  old  negress  who 


THE    ASSASSINATION.  85 

stood  and  saw  tlie  confederate  prisoners  being  carried 
for  safe  keeping  into  the  former  slave  pens,  said  grim- 
ly,  "Well,  de  Lord  am  slow,  but  He  am  sure!''' 

As  the  final  scenes  of  his  life  drew  on,  it  seemed  as 
if  a  heavenly  influence  overshadowed  the  great  mar- 
tyr, and  wrought  in  him  exactly  the  spirit  that  a  man 
would  wish  to  be  found  in  when  he  is  called  to  the 
eternal  world.  His  last  expressions  and  recorded  po- 
litical actions  looked  towards  peace  and  forgiveness. 
On  the  day  before  his  death  he  joyfully  ordered  the 
discontinuance  of  the  draft.  His  very  last  official  act 
was  to  give  orders  that  two  of  the  chief  leaders 
of  the  rebellion,  then  expected  in  disguise  at  a 
sea  port,  on  then'  flight  to  Europe,  should  not  be 
arrested,  but  permitted  to  embark  ;  so  that  he  was 
thinking  only  of  saving  the  lives  of  rebels,  when 
they  were  thinking  of  taking  his.  If  he  had  tried  of 
set  purpose  to  clear  his  soul  for  God's  presence,  and 
to  put  the  rebels  and  their  assassin  champion  in  the 
wrong  before  that  final  tribunal,  he  could  not  have 
done  better. 

Mr.  Lincoln  seems  to  have  had  during  his  course  a 
marked  presentiment  of  the  fate  which  had  from  the 
first  been  threatening  him,  and  which  the  increasing 
pile  of  letters  marked  "Assassination,"  gave  him  con- 
stant reason  to  remember.  In  more  than  one  instance 
he  had  in  his  public  speeches  professed  a  solemn  wil- 
lingness to  die  for  his  principles.  The  great  tax 
which  his  labors  and  responsibilities  made  on  his  vi- 
tality, was  perhaps  one  reason  for  his  frequently  say- 
ing that  h£  felt  that  he  should  not  live  to  go  through 
with  it.     He  observed   to  Mr.  Lovejoy,  during  that 


86  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN. 

gentleman's  last  illness,  in  February,  1864,  ''This  war 
is  eating  my  life  out ;  I  have  a  strong  impression  that 
I  shall  not  live  to  see  the  end."  In  July  following, 
lie  said  to  a  correspondent  of  the  Boston  Journal,  "I 
feel  a  presentiment  that  I  shall  not  outlast  the  rebel- 
lion.    When  it  is  over,  my  work  will  be  done." 

Concerning  the  last  painful  history,  there  have  been 
a  thousand  conflicting  stories.  From  the  mass  of  evi- 
dence the  following  brief  account  has  been  prepared, 
which  sufficiently  outlines  the  circumstances : 

Who  were  the  persons  concerned  in  the  assassina- 
tion of  President  Lincoln,  has  never  been  judicially 
proved.  Perhaps  it  never  will  be.  The  indictment 
against  the  conspirators  named  the  following  parties , 
David  E.  Herold,  George  A.  Atzerodt,  Lewis  Payne, 
Michael  O'Laughlin,  Edward  Spangler,  Samuel  Ar- 
nold, Mary  E.  Surratt,  Samuel  A.  Mudd,  John  H. 
Surratt,  John  Wilkes  Booth,  Jefferson  Davis,  George 
N.  Sanders,  Beverly  Tucker,  Jacob  Thompson,  Will- 
iam C.  Cleary,  Clement  C.  Clay,  George  Harper,  and 
George  Young ;  and  it  added,  "and  others  unknown." 
The  assassin  was  John  Wilkes  Booth.  And  whether 
or  no  Jefferson  Davis  and  his  fellows  in  the  rebel  gov- 
ernment were  actually  aiding  and  abetting  in  this 
particular  crime,  it  has  not  been  unjust  nor  unnatural 
to  suspect  them  of  it.  For  Mr.  Davis  certainly  accred- 
ited Thompson,  Sanders,  Clay,  and  Tucker,  as  his 
ofiicial  agents  in  Canada.  These  men  in  their  turn, 
and  acting  in  harmony  with  their  instructions  and  the 
purposes  of  their  government,  gave  a  commission  to 
that  John  A.  Kennedy  who  was  detected  in  attempt- 
ing to  kindle   an  extensive  fire  in  the  city  of  New 


THE   ASSASSINATION.  87 

York,  and  consulted  -with  him  about  his  proposed 
plans.  This  was  the  substance  of  Kennedy's  own  con- 
fession, and  he  and  his  accomplices  did  kindle  fires  in 
four  of  the  New  York  hotels.  It  is  completely  proved, 
again,  that  Davis  paid  sundry  sums,  in  all  $35,000 
in  gold,  to  incendiaries  hired  by  his  government  to 
burn  hospitals  and  steamboats  at  the  West,  and  that 
Thompson  paid  money  to  a  person  engaged  in  Dr. 
Blackburn's  attempt  to  spread  yellow  fever  in  our 
cities. 

But  more :  when  one  Alston  wrote  to  Davis,  offer- 
ing his  services  to  try  to  "  rid  my  country  of  some  of 
her  deadliest  enemies,  by  striking  at  the  very  heart's 
blood  of  those  who  seek  to  enchain  her  in  slavery" — 
adding  the  very  significant  remark,  "  I  consider  noth- 
ing dishonorable  having  such  a  tendency,"  Mr.  Davis 
caused  this  proposition  not  to  be  refused,  nor  passed 
over  in  silence,  nor  indignantly  exposed;  but  to  be 
"respectfully  referred,  by  direction  of  the  President, 
to  the  honorable  Secretary  of  War."  Still  more:  it 
has  been  proved  that  in  1863,  John  Wilkes  Booth 
declared  that  "  Abraliam  Lincoln  must  be  killed." 
The  rebel  agents  in  Canada,  six  months  before  the 
assassination,  specifically  made  the  same  declaration. 
In  the  summer  of  1864,  Thompson  said  that  he  could 
at  any  time  have  the  "  tyrant  Lincoln,"  or  any  of  his 
advisers  that  he  chose,  "  put  out  of  the  way,"  and 
that  Thompson's  agents  would  not  consider  doing  this 
a  crime,  if  done  for  the  rebel  cause;  and  Clay,  when 
he  heard  of  this,  corroborated  the  sentiment,  saying, 
"  That  is  so ;  we  are  all  devoted  to  our  cause,  and 
ready  to  go  any  length — to  do  anything  under  the 
sun."     Many  other  such  utterances  by  rebel  leaders 


88  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

are  proved  and  have  become  uncontradicted  matter  of 
history.    Besides ;  when  Mr.  Davis,  at  Charlotte,  North 
Carolina,  while  fleeing  from  Richmond,  received  the 
telegram  announcing  the  fate  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  he  calm- 
ly read  it  aloud  to  the  people  present,  and  without  a 
word  of  disapproval,  uttered  a  cold  comment :   "  If  it 
were  to  be  done,   it  were  better  it  were  well  done." 
And  when  Breckinridge  said  he  regretted  it,  (not  be- 
cause it  was  wicked  or  dishonorable,   but  because  it 
was  unfortunate  for  the   South  just  then,)  Mr  Davis 
replied  in  the  same  tone  of  cold  indifference  or  of 
concealed    satisfaction,  and   using  the   same  words: 
"  Well,  General,  I  don't  know ;  if  it  were  to  be  done 
at  all,  it  were  better  that  it  were  well  done  ;  and  if  the 
same  had  been  done  to  Andy  Johnson,  the  Beast  (i.  e. 
Gen.  Butler),  and  to  Secretary  Stanton,  the  job  would 
then  be   complete."     Those   are  not  the  words  of  an 
honorable  man,  nor  of  a  disapprover.      But  they  are 
exactly  natural  to  an  accessory  before   the  fact,  who 
does  not  confess  his  part  in  it,  and  prefers  to  dissemble 
his  joy.     It  is  not  at  all  unreasonable  to  suspect  that 
the  men  who  are  proved  to  have  done  thus  and  spoken 
thus,  before  and  after  the  deed,  and  who  have  openly 
hired  and  approved  the   perpetration  of  such   other 
deeds,  were  concerned  in  the  planning  and  execution 
of  this  deed  too. 

Booth  was  an  actor,  and  the  son  of  a  well  known 
actor ;  and  the  son  had  inherited,  apparently,  much 
of  the  reckless  and  occasionally  furious  temper  of  his 
father.  He  was  also  a  very  violent  and  bitter  rebel. 
During  the  fall  of  1864,  he  had  been  in  Canada,  con- 
sulting with  the  rebel  agents  there,   and  mixed  up 


THE    ASSASSINATION.  89 

with  a  number  of  other  subordinate  agents  iu  the  busi- 
ness of  assassinating  President  Lincoln ;  and  lie  was 
the  most  prominent  candidate,  so  to  speak,  for  the 
place  of  actual  murderer.  On  November  11th,  18G-4, 
he  was  in  New  York,  where,  while  riding  with  a  com- 
panion in  a  street  car,  he  dropped  a  letter  which  came 
into  the  possession  of  the  government ;  it  was  a  vig- 
orous appeal  to  him  to  assassinate  Mr.  Lincoln.  It 
said:  "Abe  must  die,  and  now.  You  can  choose  your 
weapons,  the  cup,  the  knife,  the  bullet ;"  and  again : 
"  Strike  for  your  home,  strike  for  your  country  ;  bide 
your  time,  but  strike  sure."  During  the  winter, 
Booth  was  engaging  the  assistance  required  for  his 
scheme ;  and  he  had  already  fixed  upon  the  scene  of 
the  murder;  for,  not  later  than  January,  he  was  urging 
one  Chester  to  enter  into  the  plan,  and  assuring  him 
that  all  his  part  of  it  would  be  to  stand  at  the  back 
door  of  Ford's  Theatre  and  open  it.  This  was  a  safe 
calculation,  for  the  President's  enjoyment  of  dramatic 
performances  was  great,  and ,  enhanced  by  the  diffi- 
culty of  finding  agreeable  relaxations,  and  also  by  the 
awful  pressure  of  his  official  duties  and  of  the  war, 
which  intensified  the  need  of  relaxation. 

The  scheme  as  finally  arranged,  provided  for  the  as- 
sassination of  Mr.  Lincoln,  by  Booth ;  of  Mr.  Johnson, 
by  Atzerodt ;  of  Mr.  Seward,  by  Payne,  (alias  Powell) ; 
and  of  Gen.  Grant,  by  O'Laughlin.  For  the  Presi- 
dent, an  elaborate  death  trap  was  constructed  in  Ford's 
Theatre.  The  catches  of  the  locks  to  all  three  doors 
of  the  President's  box  (one  outer  and  two  inner  ones), 
were  loosened  by  loosening  their  screws,  and  left  so 
that  a  slight  push  would  enable  the  assassin  to  enter 


90  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

even  tliougli  tlie  doors  should  be  locked.  A  small 
hole  was  made  through  one  of  the  two  inner  ones,  to 
enable  him  to  see  before  entering  exactly  how  his  vic- 
tim sat,  so  that  the  final  moves  within  the  box  could 
be  laid  out  before  entering  it ;  and  a  wooden  brace 
was  prepared  to  set  against  the  outer  door  (which 
opened  inward)  with  one  end,  and  with  the  other  to 
fit  a  mortice  cut  in  the  wall  behind,  so  that  after  en- 
tering, the  assassin  could  fasten  the  door  behind  him 
sufiiciently  to  prevent  any  interruption  until  his  work 
was  done.  Arrangements  were  made  for  securing 
horses  for  the  murderers  to  flee  with.  The  stage  car- 
penter or  assistant,  Spangler,  was  employed  to  be  on 
hand  and  open  and  shut  the  back  door  of  the  theatre 
when  wanted.  Some  scenes  and  miscellaneous  matter 
that  frequently  impeded  more  or  less  the  passage  from 
the  front  of  the  stage  to  this  back  door,  were  piled  up 
or  otherwise  put  out  of  the  way.  A  supply  of  weap- 
ons for  the  conspirators  was  provided.  And  a  route 
for  flight  from  Washington  within  the  rebel  lines  was 
determined  on.  This  route  led  southward  from  the 
city,  over  Anacostia  Bridge,  ten  miles  to  Mrs.  Surratt's 
house  at  Surrattsville,  then  some  fifteen  miles  more  to 
Dr.  Mudd's  house,  then  about  twenty  miles  to  a  point 
where  arrangements  were  made  for  crossing  the  Poto- 
mac and  proceeding  towards  Richmond. 

All  being  ready,  Booth,  about  9  P.  M.,  on  the  l-itli 
of  April,  1865,  went  to  the  theatre.  He  first  went  to 
the  back  door,  entered  it  and  saw  that  all  was  .pre- 
pared ;  left  Spangler  in  charge,  and  left  his  horse  to 
be  held  by  another  subordinate  of  the  theatre.  Then 
he  went  round  to  the  front  of  the  building,  where 


THE   ASSASSINATION.  91 

three  of  the  conspirators  were  waiting.  It  was  now 
about  half  past  nine.  One  act  of  the  play,  "  Our 
American  Cousin," — was  nearly  through.  "  I  think  he 
will  come  out  now,"  remarked  Booth.  It  is  very 
usual  for  the  spectators  to  leave  the  theatre  between 
the  acts,  often  to  return  ;  and  if  Mr.  Lincoln  had  hap- 
pened to  feel  too  busy  to  remain  longer  and  had  left 
then,  probably  Booth  would  have  attacked  him  there,  , 
trusting  to  be  able  to  escape  into  the  theatre  in  the 
bustle  and  so  through  his  guarded  door.  But  the 
President  did  not  come.  Booth  went  into  a  saloon 
close  by  and  drank  some  whisky.  The  spectators  had 
returned  for  the  next  act.  Booth  entered  the  vesti- 
bule of  the  theatre,  and  from  it  the  passage  that  leads 
from  the  street  to  the  stage  and  also  to  the  outer  door 
of  the  President's  box.  As  he  did  so,  one  of  his  com- 
panions followed  him  into  the  vestibule,  looked  up  to 
the  clock  and  called  out  the  hour.  It  was  approach- 
ing ten.  Three  successive  times,  at  intervals  of  sev- 
eral minutes,  the  companion  thus  called  out  the  hour. 
The  third  time  he  called,  in  a  louder  tone,  "  Ten  min- 
utes past  ten  o'clock  !"  At  this  Booth  disappeared  in 
the  theatre,  and  the  three  others  walked  rapidly  away. 
Booth  went  straight  to  the  outer  door  of  the  Presi- 
dent's box,  paused  and  showed  a  visiting  card  to  the 
President's  messenger,  who  was  in  waiting  ;  placed  his 
hand  and  his  knee  against  the  door,  and  pushing  it 
open,  entered.  He  then  quietly  fastened  the  door 
with  the  brace  that  stood  ready  ;  looked  through  the 
hole  in  the-  inner  door,  and  saw  the  President.  Si- 
lently opening  the  door,  he  entered.  Mr.  Lincoln  sat  at 
the  left  hand  front  corner  of  the  box,  his  wife  at  his 


92  ABRAHAM    LIXCOLX. 

right  hand,  a  Miss  Harris  at  the  right  hand  front  cor- 
ner, and  a  Major  Rathbone  behind  her.  Mr.  Lincohi 
was  leaning  forward  and  looking  down  into  the  orches- 
tra. Booth  stepped  quickly  up,  and  fired  a  pistol 
bullet  into  the  President's  head,  behind  and  on  the 
left  side.  The  murdered  man  raised  his  head  once ;  it 
fell  back  upon  his  chair,  and  his  eyes  closed.  Major 
Rathbone,  a  cool,  bold  and  prompt  soldier,  who  had 
been  absorbed  in  the  play,  now  hearing  the  pistol-shot, 
turned,  saw  Booth  through  the  smoke,  and  instantly 
sprang  upon  him.  Booth,  a  nervous  and  strong  man, 
expert  in  all  athletic  exercises,  and  a  skillful  fencer, 
wrenched  himself  free  with  a  desperate  effort,  as  he 
well  needed  to  do.  He  had  already  dropped  his  pis- 
tol and  drawn  a  heavy  bowie  knife,  with  which  he  made 
a  furious  thrust  at  his  captor's  heart.  Rathbone  parried 
it,  but  was  wounded  deeply  in  the  arm  and  his  hold 
loosed.  Booth  sprang  for  the  front  of  the  box ;  Rath- 
bone  followed,  but  only  caught  his  clothes  as  he  sprang 
over.  Rathbone  shouted  "  Stop  that  man!  "  and  then 
turned  to  assist  the  President. 

Booth  leaped  over  the  front  of  the  box,  down  upon 
the  stage,  shouting  as  he  went,  "  Revenge  for  the 
South!"  His  spur  caught  in  the  national  flag  as  he 
descended ;  the  entanglement  caused  him  to  fall  almost 
fiat  on  the  stage  as  he  came  down ;  and  either  the 
wrench  of  tearing  loose  from  the  flag,  or  the  fall, 
snapped  one  of  the  bones  of  his  leg  between  knee  and 
ankle.  This  fracture,  though  not  preventing  him  at 
once  from  moving  about,  so  far  disabled  him  as  prob- 
ably to  have  been  the  occasion  of  his  being  overtaken 
and  captured  ;  so  that  it  is  scarcely  extravagant  to  im- 


THE    ASSASSIXATION.  93 

agine  the  flag  as  having,  in  a  sense,  avenged  the  guilt 
of  the  crime  perpetrated  upon  its  chief  official  de- 
fender, by  waylaying  and  entrapping  the  criminal  in 
his  turn,  as  he  had  done  his  victim.  Booth  instantly 
sprang  up,  turned  towards  the  audience,  and  raising 
his  bloody  knife  in  a  stage  attitude,  with  a  theatrical 
manner,  vociferated  the  motto  of  the  State  of  Yirgfin- 
la,  '■'■  Sic  semper  tyrannisT — a  motto  already  turned 
into  a  discreditable  satire  by  its  contrast  with  the  char- 
acteristic traffic  of  the  great  slavebreeding  state,  and 
even  more  effectually  disgraced  by  the  use  now  made 
of  it,  to  justify  assassination.  It  will  be  strange  if 
some  less  dishonored  words  are  not  one  day  chosen 
for  the  device  of  Free  Virginia. 

Booth,  thus  vaporing  for  a  moment,  then  rushed 
headlong  across  the  stage,  and  darted  by  the  side  pas 
sage  to  the  rear  door.  One  man  sprang  from  an 
orchestra  seat  upon  the  stage  and  shouted  to  stop  him. 
One  of  the  employes  of  the  theatre,  standing  in  the 
passage,  was  too  much  startled  to  stand  aside,  and  the 
desperate  fugitive  struck  him  on  the  leg,  cut  at  him 
twice,  knocked  him  one  side  and  darted  on.  The  door 
was  ready.  He  sprang  out,  and  it  shut  behind  him. 
Seizing  the  horse  which  was  held  in  waiting  for  him, 
Booth,  as  if  in  a  frenz}^  like  that  of  the  Malays  when 
"running  amok,''  struck  the  poor  fellow  who  held  it, 
with  the  butt  of  his  knife,  knocking  him  down  ;  and 
then  kicking  him,  sprang  to  the  saddle,  and  after  a 
few  moments  lost  in  consequence  of  some  nervousness 
or  fright  of  the  animal,  rode  swiftly  off.  This  was  on 
the  evening  of  Friday,  the  14th  ;  it  was  on  Wednes- 
day, the  26rth,  that  Booth,  after  having  been  delayed 


94  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

by  having  his  leg  set,  and  crippled  by  it  afterwards, 
was  discovered  in  Garrett's  barn,  south  of  the  Rappa- 
hannock, not  far  from  twenty  miles  from  the  Potomac, 
and  was  surrounded,  shot  and  taken. 

The  murdered  President  was  quickly  carried  from 
the  theatre  to  a  house  across  the  street  and  placed 
upon  a  bed.  Surgical  aid  was  at  once  obtained,  but 
an  examination  at  once  showed  that  there  was  no  hope 
of  life.  Mr.  Lincoln's  eyes  had  not  opened,  nor  had 
consciousness  returned  at  all,  and  they  never  did.  The 
ball  was  a  heavy  one,  from  what  is  called  a  Derringer 
pistol,  a  short  single-barreled  weapon  with  a  large 
bore.  It  had  passed  clear  through  the  brain,  and 
lodged  against  the  bone  of  the  orbit  of  the  left  eye, 
breaking  that  bone.  It  is  almost  certain  that  Mr. 
Lincoln  suffered  no  pain  after  being  shot,  as  the  in- 
jury was  of  a  nature  to  destroy  conscious  life.  His 
exceedingly  strong  constitution  and  tenacity  of  life 
maintained  respiration  and  circulation  for  a  remarka- 
bly long  time,  but  he  died  the  next  morning  at  about 
half  past  seven. 

Of  the  particulars  of  that  great  national  mourning 
which  bowed  the  whole  land,  it  is  not  needful  to  speak. 
Like  many  parts  of  that  great  history  of  which  it 
formed  a  portion,  there  were  often  points  in  it  of  a 
peculiar  and  symbolic  power,  which  rose  to  the  sub- 
lime. Such  was  the  motto — "Be  still,  and  know  that 
I  am  God" — which  spoke  from  the  walls  of  the  New 
York  depot  when  amid  the  hush  of  weeping  thousands, 
the  solemn  death  car  entered.  The  contrast  between 
the  peaceful  expression  on  the  face  of  the  weary  man, 
and  the  surging  waves  of  mourning  and  lamentation 
around  him  was  touching  and  awful. 


THE    ASSASSINATION.  95 

Not  the  least  toucliing  among  these  expressions  of 
national  mourning  was  the  dismay  and  anguish  of  that 
poor  oppressed  race  for  whose  rights  he  died. 

A  southern  correspondent  of  the  New  York  Trib- 
une, the  week  following  the  assassination,  wrote : 
"  I  never  saw  such  sad  faces,  or  heard  such  heavy 
heart-beatings,  as  here  in  Charleston  the  day  the  news 
came.  The  colored  people  were  like  children  be- 
reaved of  a  parent.  I  saw  one  old  woman  going  up 
the  streets,  wringing  her  hands,  and  saying  aloud  as 
she  walked,  looking  straight  before  her,  so  absorbed 
in  her  grief  that  she  noticed  no  one  ; 

'  0  Lord !  Oh  Lord  !  0  Lord  !  Massa  Sam's  dead ! 
Massa  Sam's  dead !' 

'  Who's  dead.  Aunty?'  'Massa  Sam's  dead!'  she 
said,  not  looking  at  me,  and  renewing  her  lamenta- 
tions. 

'  Who's  Massa  Sam  ?'  said  L 

' Uncle  Sam,' she  said,   'OLord!  0  Lord!' 

Not  quite  sure  that  she  meant  the  President,  I  spoke 
again : 

'  Who's  Massa  Sam,  Aunty  ?' 

'Mr.  Lincum !'  she  said,  and  resumed  wringing  her 
hands,   mourning   in  utter   hopelessness   of   sorrow." 

The  poor  negroes  on  the  distant  plantations  had 
formed  a  conception  of  Lincoln,  much  akin  to  that  of  a 
Divine  Being.  Their  masters  fled  on  the  approach  of 
our  soldiers,  and  this  gave  the  slaves  the  conception 
of  a  great  Invisible  Power  which  they  called  Massa 
Lincum.  An  old  negro  exhorter  once,  rising  in  an 
assembly  of  them,  was  heard  solemnly  instructing  his 
fellows  in  the  nature  of  this  great  unknown:     "  Bred- 


96  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

ren,"  he  said  solemnly,  "  Massa  Lincum,  lie  be  ebery- 
where.  He  knows  ebery  ting ;"  and  looking  up  sol- 
emnly, "  He  walk  de  earf  like  de  Lord." 

To  them  the  stroke  was  almost  as  if  we  could  pos- 
sibly conceive  death  as  happening  to  the  God  we  wor- 
ship ;  a  mingled  shock  of  grief,  surprise  and  terror. 

No  death  of  a  public  man  ever  entered  so  deep  into 
the  life  of  individual  families,  so  as  to  seem  like  a  per- 
sonal domestic  sorrow.  The  assumption  of  mourning 
badges  and  garments,  the  hanging  out  of  mourning 
tokens,  was  immediate  in  thousands  of  families,  each 
obeying  the  same  spontaneous  impulse  without  stop- 
ping to  consult  the  other.  It  seemed  almost  as  if  the 
funeral  bells  tolled  of  themselves  and  without  hands. 
Wherever  the  news  travelled,  so  immediately  and 
without  waiting  for  public  consultation,  were  these 
tributes  of  mourning  given. 

One  fact  alone,  proves  the  depth  and  strength  of 
these  feelings  more  than  volumes  of  description.  It 
is,  the  vast  extent  of  the  publications  in  which  the 
history  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  life  and  times,  his  individual 
biography  and  real  or  written  utterances,  or  his  per- 
sonal appearance,  were  in  one  way  or  another  com- 
memorated. A  gentleman  who  has  begun  a  collec- 
tion of  such  materials  had  some  time  ago  gathered  two 
hundred  different  books  on  Mr.  Lincoln,  a  hundred 
and  twenty-five  portraits,  besides  badges,  mourning 
cards,  autographs  and  manuscripts,  as  he  reports, 
"almost  without  number."  And  in  the  list  of  publi- 
cations about  the  rebellion  compiled  by  Mr.  Bartlett, 
are  enumerated  three  hundred  and  eighty  books,  ser- 
mons, eulogies  or  addresses  upon  his  life  or  death. 


FOREIGN   OPINIONS.  97 

There  is  an  astonishing  contrast  between  the  per- 
fect sweetness  and  kindness  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  senti- 
ments and  utterances,  whether  private  or  public,  indi- 
vidual or  ofl&cial,  in  reference  to  the  rebels  and  the  re- 
bellion, and  theirs  about  him.  Doubtless  no  loyal  cit- 
izen of  the  United  States  was  so  uniformly  kind  in 
feeling  and  decorous  and  even  courteous  in  expres- 
sion, about  the  rebels ;  and  doubtless  no  such  citizen 
was  so  odiously  bespattered  with  the  most  hateful  and 
vulgar  and  ferocious  insult  and  abuse,  both  public  and 
private.  To  give  the  quotations  to  prove  the  point 
would  be  simply  disgusting.  They  were  sprinkled 
through  the  newspapers  and  the  public  documents  of 
the  rebellion  from  beginning  to  end  of  it.  A  com- 
pend  and  a  proof  at  once  of  the  whole  of  them  was 
that  private  bundle  of  letters  threatening  death, 
marked  in  Mr.  Lincoln's  own  handwriting  "Assassina- 
tion," and  kept  in  his  private  cabinet.  And  the  assas- 
sination itself  and  the  circumstances  connected  with 
it,  constituted  another  proof  and  specimen,  still  more 
overwhelming.  Never  since  the  times  of  the  Chris- 
tian martyrs  has  history  recorded  a  contrast  more  hu- 
miliating to  humanity,  between  his  kind  words  and  kind 
intentions  on  the  one  hand,  and  infamous  abusive- 
ness  and  deliberate  bloodthirsty  ferocity  in  those  who 
thus  slew  the  best  and  kindest  friend  they  had  in  the 
world. 

Scarcely  less  striking  was  the  contrast  between  the 
habitual  tone  of  the  foreign  utterances  about  Presi- 
dent Lincoln  before  his  death  and  that  of  those  after 
it ;  a  change,  moreover,  whose  promptness  and  evi- 
dent manly  good  faith  may  in  some  measure  atoue  for 


98  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

the  unreasonable  and  even  indecent  character  of  many 
things  said  and  printed  in  Europe.  It  is  unnecessary 
to  reproduce  the  oflPences  :  it  is  a  more  grateful  task  to 
quote  a  few  specimens  of  the  feelings  and  expressions 
with  which  the  news  of  his  death  and  of  the  manner 
of  it  was  received  abroad.  ,        - 

It  may  be  premised,  that  some  few  persons  of  for- 
eign birth  and  good  position,  had  already  discerned 
the  truth  of  the  character  of  Mr.  Lincoln.  A  corres- 
pondent of  the  N.  Y.  Times  wrote  that  paper  from 
Washington,  on  one  occasion,  the  following  narrative : 

"One  day,  as  President  Lincoln  drove  past  a  Wash- 
ington hotel,  sitting  alone  in  his  carriage,  three  gen- 
tlemen stood  talking  in  front  of  the  hotel.  One  of 
them,  a  foreigner  of  high  cultivation  and  great  dis- 
tinction, with  a  gesture  quite  involuntary,  raised  his 
hat  and  remained  uncovered  until  Mr.  Lincoln  had 
passed  by.  One  of  his  companions,  surprised  at  so 
much  ceremony,  observed,  "You'forget  that  you  are 
in  republican  America  and  not  in  Russia."  "Not  at 
all,  sir — not  at  all,"  was  the  reply,  given  with  a 
certain  indignation;  "that  is  the  only  living  ruler 
whom  I  sincerely  reverence.  I  could  not  avoid  show- 
ing the  feeling,  if  I  would.  He  is  a  patriot,  a  states- 
man, a  great-hearted  honest  man.  You  Americans 
reverence  nothing  in  the  present."  And  after  a  few 
more  sentences  to  the  like  effect,  he  ended  by  saying  : 
"  Not  only  your  posterity,  but  the  posterity  of  all  the 
peoples  which  love  honesty  and  revere  patriotism,  will 
declare  that  the  part  which  President  Lincoln  was 
called  to  perform,  required  the  exercise  of  as  noble 
qualities    as  the  'Father    of  his  Country'  ever  pos- 


FOREIGN   OPINIONS.  99 

sessed.  It  is  any  thing  but  a  credit  to  you  that  you 
do  not  better  appreciate  the  man  whom  God  has  sent 
in  these  perilous  times  to  rule  the  people  of  this  re- 
public." 

The  rebuke  was  received  in  silence.  But  such 
cases  were  very  few.  The  general  tone  of  foreign 
opinion  about  him  was  thoroughly  unjust.  Not  so  the 
obituary  testimonials  from  across  the  sea. 

On  the  first  of  May,  1865,  Sir  George  Grey,  in  the 
English  House  of  Commons,  moved  an  address  to  the 
Crown,  to  express  the  feelings  of  the  House  upon  the 
assassination  of  Mr.  Lincoln.  In  this  address  he  said 
that  he  was  convinced  that  Mr.  Lincoln  "in  the  hour 
of  victory,  and  in  the  triumph  of  victory,  would  have 
shown  that  wise  forbearance,  and  that  generous  con- 
sideration, which  would  have  added  tenfold  lustre  to 
the  fame  that  he  had  already  acquired,  amidst  the  va- 
rying fortunes  of  the  war." 

In  seconding  the  same  address,  at  the  same  time  and 
place,  Mr.  Benjamin  Disraeli  said:  "But  in  the  charac- 
ter of  the  victim,  and  in  the  very  accessories  of  his  almost 
latest  moments,  there  is  something  so  homely  and  so 
innocent  that  it  takes  the  subject,  as  it  were,  out  of 
the  pomp  of  history,  and  out  of  the  ceremonial  of  di- 
plomacy. It  touches  the  heart  of  nations,  and  appeals 
to  the  domestic  sentiments  of  mankind." 

In  the  House  of  Lords,  Lord  John  Russell,  in  mov- 
ing a  similar  address,  observed:  "President  Lincoln 
was  a  man  who,  although  he  had  not  been  distin- 
guished before  his  election,  had  from  that  time  dis- 
played a  character  of  so  much  integrity,  sincerity  and 
straightforwardness,  and  at  the  same  time  of  so  much 


100  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

kindness,  that  if  any  one  could  have  been  able  to  alle- 
viate the  pain  and  animosity  which  have  prevailed 
during  the  civil  war,  I  believe  President  Lincoln  was 
the  man  to  have  done  so."  And  again,  in  speaking 
of  the  question  of  amending  the  constitution  so  as  to 
prohibit  slavery,  he  said :  "  We  must  all  feel  that  there 
again  the  death  of  President  Lincoln  deprives  the 
United  States  of  the  man  who  was  the  leader  on  this 
subject." 

^Ir.  John  Stuart  Mill,  the  distinguished  philosopher, 
in  a  letter  to  an  American  friend,  used  far  stronger 
expressions  than  these  guarded  phrases  of  high 
officials.  He  termed  Mr.  Lincoln  "the  great  citizen 
who  had  aiforded  so  noble  an  example  of  the  qualities 
befitting  the  first  magistrate  of  a  free  people,  and  who, 
in  the  most  trying  circumstances,  had  gradually  won 
not  only  the  admiration,  but  almost  the  personal  affec- 
tion of  all  who  love  freedom  or  appreciate  simplicity 
or  uprightness." 

Professor  Goldwin  Smith,  writing  to  the  London 
Daily  News,  began  by  saying,  "It  is  difficult  to  meas- 
ure the  calamity  which  the  United  States  and  the 
world  have  sustained  by  the  murder  of  President  Lin- 
coln. The  assassin  has  done  his  best  to  strike  down 
mercy  and  moderation,  of  both  of  which  this  good 
and  noble  life  was  the  main  stay." 

Senhor  Rebello  da  Silva,  a  member  of  the  Portu- 
guese Chamber  of  Peers,  in  moving  a  resolution  on  the 
death  of  ^Ir.  Lincoln,  thus  outlined  his  character : 
"He  is  truly  great  who  rises  to  the  loftiest  heights 
from  profound  obscurity,  relying  solely  on  his  own 
merits   as  did  Napoleon,  Washington,  Lincoln.     For 


FOREIGN    OPIXIOXS.  101 

these  arose  to  power  and  greatness,  not  througli  any 
favor  or  grace,  by  a  chance  cradle,  or  genealogy,  but 
•through  the  prestige  of  their  own  deeds,  through  the 
nobility  which  begins  and  ends  with  themselves — the 
sole  offspring  of  their  own  works.  *  *  *  Lincoln 
was  of  this  privileged  class;  he  belonged  to  this  aris- 
tocracy. In  infancy,  his  energetic  soul  was  nourished 
by  poverty.  In  youth,  he  learned  through  toil  the 
love  of  liberty,  and  respect  for  the  rights  of  man. 
Even  to  the  age  of  twenty-two,  educated  in  adversity, 
his  hands  made  callous  by  honorable  labor,  he  rested 
from  the  fatigues  of  the  field,  spelling  out,  in  the  pa- 
ges of  the  Bible,  in  the  lessons  of  the  gospel,  in  the 
fugitive  leaves  of  the  daily  journal — which  the  aurora 
opens,  and  the  night  disperses — the  first  rudiments  of 
instruction,  which  his  solitary  meditations  ripened. 
The  chrysalis  felt  one  day  the  ray  of  the  sun,  which 
called  it  to  life,  broke  its  involucrum,  and  it  launched 
forth  fearlessly  from  the  darkness  of  its  humble  clois- 
ter into  the  luminous  spaces  of  its  destiny.  The  farm- 
er, day-laborer,  shepherd,  like  Cincinnatus,  left  the 
plough-share  in  the  half  broken  furrow,  and,  legislator 
of  his  own  State,  and  afterwards  of  the  Great  Repub- 
lic, saw  himself  proclaimed  in  the  tribunal  the  popular 
chief  of  several  millions  of  people,  the  maintainer  of 
the  holy  principle  inaugurated  by  Wilberforce." 

There  are  some  vague  und  some  only  partially  cor- 
rect statements  in  this  diffuse  passage ;  but  it  shows 
plainly  enough  how  enthusiastically  the  Portugese  no- 
bleman had  admired  the  antique  simplicity  and 
strength  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  character. 

Dr.  Merle  d'  Aubigne,  the  historian  of  the  Reforma- 
tion, writing  to  JMr.  Fogg,  U.  S.  ^Minister  to  Switzer- 


102  ABRAHAM     LINCOLN. 

land,  said:  "While  not  venturing  to  compare  him  to 
the  great  sacrifice  of  Golgotha,  which  gave  liberty  to 
the  captives,  is  it  not  just,  in  this  hour,  to  recall  the 
word  of  an  apostle  (1  John,  iii:  16):  'Hereby  per- 
ceive we  the  love  of  God,  because  he  laid  down  his 
life  for  us :  and  we  ought  to  lay  down  our  lives  for 
the  brethren  '  ?  Who  can  say  that  the  President  did 
not  lay  down  his  life  by  the  firmness  of  his  devotion 
to  a  great  duty  ?  The  name  of  Lincoln  w^ill  remain 
one  of  the  greatest  that  history  has  to  inscribe  on  its 
annals.  *  *  *  Among  the  legacies  which  Lincoln 
leaves  to  us,  we  shall  all  regard  as  the  most  precious, 
his  spirit  of  equity,  of  moderation,  and  of  peace,  ac- 
cording to  which  he  will  still  preside,  if  I  may  so 
speak,  over  the  restoration  of  your  great  nation." 

The  "Democratic  Association"  of  Florence,  ad- 
dressed "to  the  Free  People  of  the  United  States,"  a 
letter,  in  which  they  term  Mr.  Lincoln  "the  honest, 
the  magnanimous  citizen,  the  most  worthy  chief  mag- 
istrate of  your  glorious  Federation." 

The  eminent  French  liberal,  M.  Edouard  Laboulaye, 
in  a  speech  showing  a  remarkably  just  understanding 
and  extremely  broad  views  with  respect  to  the  affairs 
and  the  men  of  the  United  States,  said:  "Mr.  Lincoln 
was  one  of  those  heroes  who  are  io:norant  of  them- 
selves ;  his  thoughts  will  reign  after  him.  The  name 
of  Washington  has  already  been  pronounced,  and  I 
think  with  reason.  Doubtless  Mr.  Lincoln  resembled 
Franklin  more  than  Washington.  By  his  origin,  his 
arch  good  nature,  his  ironical  good  sense,  and  his  love 
of  anecdotes  and  jesting,  he  was  of  the  same  blood  as 
the   printer  of  Philadelphia.     But  it  is  nevertheless 


FOREIGN    OPINIONS.  103 

true  that  in  less  than  a  century,  America  has  passed 
through  to-o  crises  in  which  its  Ubertj  might  have 
been  lost,  if  it  had  not  had  honest  men  at  its  head ; 
and  that  each  time  it  has  had  the  happiness  to  meet 
the  man  best  fitted  to  serve  it.  If  Washington  found- 
ed the  Union,  Lincoln  has  saved  it.  History  will  draw 
together  and  unite  those  two  names.  A  single  word 
explains  l^^Ir.  Lincoln's  whole  life :  it  was  Duty.  Never 
did  he  put  himself  forward ;  never  did  he  think  of 
himself;  never  did  he  seek  one  of  those  ingenious 
combinations  which  jDuts  the  head  of  a  state  in  bold 
relief,  and  enhances  his  importance  at  the  expense 
of  the  country ;  his  only  ambition,  his  only  thought 
was  faithfully  to  fulfil  the  mission  which  his  fellow- 
citizens  had  entrusted  to  him.  *  *  *  jjis  inaueru- 
ral  address,  March  4,  1865,  shows  us  what  progress 
had  been  made  in  his  soul.  This  piece  of  familiar 
eloquence  is  a  master-piece ;  it  is  the  testament  of  a 
patriot.  I  do  not  believe  that  any  eulogy  of  the 
President  would  equal  this  page  on  which  he  has  de- 
picted himself  in  all  his  greatness  and  all  his  simplic- 
ity. *  *  *  History  is  too  often  only  a  school  of 
immorality.  It  shows  us  the  victory  of  force  or  strat- 
agem much  more  than  the  success  of  justice,  modera- 
tion, and  probity.  It  is  too  often  only  the  apotheosis 
of  triumphant  selfishness.  There  are  noble  and  great 
exceptions ;  happy  those  who  can  increase  the  number, 
and  thus  bequeath  a  noble  and  beneficent  example  to 
posterity!  ^Ir.  Lincoln  is  among  these.  He  would 
willingly  have  repeated,  after  Franklin,  that  'false- 
hood and  artifice  are  the  practice  of  fools  who  have 
not  wit  enough  to  be  honest.'     All  his  private  life, 


104  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

and  all  his  political  life,  were  inspired  and  directed  by 
this  profound  faith  in  the  omnipotence  of  virtue.  It 
is  through  this,  again,  that  he  deserves  to  bcTompared 
with  Washington ;  it  is  through  this  that  he  will  re- 
main in  history  with  the  most  glorious  name  that  can 
be  merited  by  the  head  of  a  free  people — a  name 
given  him  by  his  cotemporaries,  and  which  will  be 
preserved  to  him  by  posterity — that  of  Honest  Abra- 
ham Lincoln." 

A  letter  from  the  well  known  French  historian, 
Henri  Martin,  to  the  Paris  Siecle,  contained  the  fol- 
lowing passages:  "Lincoln  will  remain  the  austere 
and  sacred  personification  of  a  great  epoch,  the  most 
faithful  expression  of  democracy.  This  simple  and 
upright  man,  prudent  and  strong,  elevated  step  by 
step  from  the  artizan's  bench  to  the  command  of  a 
great  nation,  and  always  without  parade  and  without 
effort,  at  the  height  of  his  position  ;  executing  without 
precipitation,  without  flourish,  and  with  invincible 
good  sense,  the  most  colossal  acts ;  giving  to  the  world 
this  decisive  example  of  the  civil  power  in  a  republic ; 
directing  a  gigantic  war,  without  free  institutions  be- 
ing for  an  instant  compromised  or  threatened  by  mili- 
tary usurpation ;  dying,  finally,  at  the  moment  when, 
after  conquering,  he  was  intent  on  pacification,     *     * 

*  this  man  will  stand  out,  in  the  traditions  of  his 
country  and  the  world,  as  an  incarnation  of  the  peo- 
ple, and  of  modern  democracy  itself  The  great  work 
of  emancipation  had  to  be  sealed,  therefore,  with  the 
blood  of  the  just,  even  as  it  was  inaugurated  with  the 
blood  of  the  just.  The  tragic  history  of  the  abolition 
of  slavery,  which  opened  with  the  gibbet  of  John 
Brown,  will  close  with  the  assassination  of  Lincoln. 


FOREIGN   OPINIONS.  105 

And  now  let  him  rest  by  the  side  of  Washington, 
as  the  second  founder  of  the  great  Republic.  Euro- 
pean democracy  is  present  in  spirit  at  his  funeral,  as 
it  voted  in  its  heart  for  his  re-election,  and  applauded 
the  victory  in  the  midst  of  which  he  passed  away.  It 
will  wish  with  one  accord  to  associate  itself  with  the 
monument  that  America  will  raise  to  him  upon  the 
capitol  of  prostrate  slavery." 

The  London  Globe,  in  commenting  on  Mr.  Lincoln's 
assassination,  said  that  he  "had  come  nobly  through  a 
great  ordeal.  He  had  extorted  the  admiration  even  of 
his  opponents,  at  least  on  this  side  of  the  water.  They 
had  come  to  admire,  reluctantly,  his  firmness,  honesty, 
fairness  and  sagacity.  He  tried  to  do,  and  had  done, 
what  he  considered  his  duty,  with  magnanimity." 

The  London  Express  said,  "He  had  tried  to  show 
the  world  how  great,  how  moderate,  and  how  true  he 
could  be,  in  the  moment  of  his  great  triumph." 

The  Liverpool  Post  said,  "  K  ever  there  was  a  man 
who  in  trying  times  avoided  offenses,  it  was  Mr.  Lin- 
coln. If  there  ever  was  a  leader  in  a  civil  contest  who 
shunned  acrimony  and  eschewed  passion,  it  was  he. 
In  a  time  of  much  cant  and  affectation  he  was  simple, 
unaffected,  true,  transparent.  In  a  season  of  many 
mistakes  he  was  never  known  to  be  wrong.  *  *  * 
By  a  happy  tact,  not  often  so  felicitously  blended  with 
pure  evidence  of  soul,  Abraham  Lincoln  knew  when 
to  speak,  and  never  spoke  too  early  or  too  late.  *  *  * 
The  memory  of  his  statesmanship,  translucent  in  the 
highest  degree,  and  above  the  average,  and  openly 
faithful,  more  than  almost  any  of  this  age  has  wit- 
nessed, to  fact  and  right,  will  live  in  the  hearts  and 


106  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

minds  of  the  whole  Anglo-Saxon  race,  as  one  of  the 
noblest  examples  of  that  race's  highest  qualities.  Add 
to  all  this  that  Abraham  Lincoln  was  the  humblest 
and  pleasantest  of  men,  that  he  had  raised  himself 
from  nothing,  and  that  to  the  last  no  grain  of  conceit 
or  ostentation  was  found  in  him,  and  there  stands  be- 
fore the  world  a  man  whose  like  we  shall  not  soon 
look  upon  again." 

In  the  remarks  of  M.  Rouher,  the  French  Minister, 
in  the  Legislative  Assembly,  on  submitting  to  that  As- 
sembly the  official  despatch  of  the  French  Foreign 
Minister  to  the  Charg^  at  Washington,  M.  Rouher  re- 
marked, of  Mr.  Lincoln's  personal  character,  that  he 
had  exhibited  "  that  calm  firmness  and  indomitable 
energy  which  belong  to  strong  minds,  and  are  the 
necessary  conditions  of  the  accomplishment  of  great 
duties.  In  the  hour  of  victory  he  exhibited  generos- 
ity, moderation  and  conciliation." 

And  in  the  despatch,  which  was  signed  by  M.  Drouyn 
de  L' Huys,  were  the  following  expressions:  "Abra- 
ham Lincoln  exhibited,  in  the  exercise  of  the  power 
placed  in  his  hands,  the  most  substantial  qualities.  In 
him,  firmness  of  character  was  allied  to  elevation  of 
principle.  *  *  *  in  reviewing  these  last  testimo- 
nies to  his  exalted  wisdom,  as  well  as  the  examples  of 
good  sense,  of  courage,  and  of  patriotism,  which  he 
has  given,  history  will  not  hesitate  to  place  him  in  the 
rank  of  citizens  who  have  the  most  honored  their 
country." 

In  the  Prussian  Lower  House,  Herr  Loewes,  in 
speaking  of  the  news  of  the  assassination,  said  that 
Mr.  Lincoln  "performed  his  duties  without  pomp  or 


FOREIGN   OPIKIONS.  107 

ceremony,  and  relied  on  that  dignity  of  his  inner  self 
alone,  which  is  far  above  rank,  orders  and  titles.  He 
was  a  faithful  servant,  not  less  of  his  own  common- 
wealth than  of  civilization,  freedom  and  humanity." 

By  far  the  most  beautiful  of  all  these  foreign  trib- 
utes, was  the  very  generous  memorial  of  the  London 
Punch.  That  paper  had  joined  all  the  fashionable 
world  in  making  merry  at  Lincoln's  expense  while  he 
struggled,  weary  and  miry,  through  the  "  valley  of 
humiliation," — but  it  is  not  every  one  who  does  a 
wrong  who  is  capable  of  so  full  and  generous  a  repa- 
ration. We  give  it  entire,  because,  apart  from  its  no- 
ble spirit,  it  is  one  of  the  most  truthful  summaries  of 
Lincoln's  character: 

Ton  lay  a  wreath  on  murdered  Lincoln's  bier ! 

You,  who  with  mocking  pencil  wont  to  trace, 
Broad  for  the  self-complacent  British  sneer, 

His  length  of  shambling  limb,  his  furrowed  face, 

His  gaunt,  gnarled  hands,  his  unkempt,  bristling  hair, 
His  garb  uncouth,  his  bearing  ill  at  ease, 

His  lack  of  all  we  prize  as  debonair. 

Of  power  or  will  to  shine,  of  art  to  please  ! 

Toic,  whose  smart  pen  backed  up  the  pencil's  laugh, 
Judging  each  step,  as  though  the  way  were  plain : 

Reckless,  so  it  could  point  its  paragraph, 
Of  chief's  perplexity,  or  people's  pain ! 

Beside  this  corpse,  that  bears  for  winding-sheet 
The  stars  and  stripes  he  lived  to  rear  anew, 

Between  the  mourners  at  his  head  and  feet, 
Say,  scurril-jester,  is  there  room  for  you  ? 

Yes,  he  had  lived  to  shame  me  from  my  sneer — 
To  lame  my  pencil,  and  confute  my  pen — 


108  ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 

To  make  me  own  this  hind  of  princes  peer, 
This  rail-splitter  a  true-born  king  of  men. 

Mj  shallow  judgment  I  had  learned  to  rue, 
^Noting  how  to  occasion's  height  he  rose ; 

How  his  quaint  wit  made  home-truth  seem  more  true; 
How,  iron-like,  his  temper  grew  by  blows ; 

How  humble,  yet  how  hopeful  he  could  be ; 

How  in  good  fortune  and  in  ill  the  same ; 
Nor  bitter  in  success,  nor  boastful  he. 

Thirsty  for  gold,  nor  feverish  for  fame. 

He  went  about  his  work — such  work  as  few 

Ever  had  laid  on  head,  and  heart,  and  hand- 
As  one  who  knows  where  there's  a  task  to  do ; 

Man's  honest  will  must  Heaven's  good  grace  command 

Who  trusts  the  strength  will  with  the  burden  grow, 
That  God  makes  instruments  to  work  his  will, 

If  but  that  will  we  can  arrive  to  know, 

Nor  tamper  with  the  weights  of  good  and  ill. 

So  he  went  forth  to  battle,  on  the  side 

That  he  felt  clear  was  Liberty's  and  Right's, 

As  in  his  peasant  boyhood  he  had  plied 

His  warfare  with  rude  nature's  thwarting  mights  ; — 

The  uncleared  forest,  the  unbroken  soil, 

The  iron  bark  that  turn's  the  lumberer's  axe, 

The  rapid,  that  o'erbears  the  boatman's  toil, 

The  praii'ie,  hiding  the  mazed  wanderer's  tracks, 

The  ambushed  Indian,  and  the  prowling  bear — 

Such  were  the  needs  that  helped  liis  youth  to  train  i 

Rough  cultui'e — but  such  trees  large  fruit  may  bear, 
If  but  their  stocks  be  of  right  girth  and  grain. 

So  he  grew  up,  a  destined  work  to  do. 

And  lived  to  do  it :  four  long  suffering  years* 

ni-fate,  ill-feeling,  ill-report,  lived  through, 

And  then  he  heard  the  hisses  change  to  cheers, 


FINAL    ESTIMATE.  109 


The  taunts  to  tribute,  the  abuse  to  praise, 

And  took  both  with  the  same  unwavering  mood ; 
Till,  as  he  came  on  light,  from  darkling  days, 

And  seemed  to  touch  the  goal  from  where  he  stood, 

A  felon  hand,  between  the  goal  and  him, 
Reached  from  behind  his  back,  a  trigger  prest — 
And  those  perplexed  and  patient  eyes  were  dim. 

Those  gaunt,  long  laboring  limbs  were  laid  to  rest ! 

The  words  of  mercy  were  upon  his  lips. 

Forgiveness  in  his  heart  and  on  his  pen. 
When  this  vile  murderer  brought  swift  eclipse 

To  thoughts  of  peace  on  earth,  good-will  to  men. 

The  old  world  and  the  new,  from  sea  to  sea, 
Utter  one  voice  of  sympathy  and  shame  ! 

Sore  heart,  so  stopped  when  it  at  last  beat  high ! 
Sad  life,  cut  short  just  as  its  triumph  came. 

Lincoln  must  be  looked  upon  in  the  final  review  of 
his  character,  as  one  of  those  men  elect  of  God,  whom 
he  calls  and  chooses  to  effect  great  purposes  of  his 
own,  and  fashions  and  educates  with  especial  reference 
to  that  purpose.  As  is  usual  in  such  cases,  the  man 
whom  God  chooses  for  a  work  is  not  at  all  the  man 
whom  the  world  beforehand  would  choose,  and  often 
for  a  time  the  world  has  difficulty  in  receiving  him. 
There  was  great  questioning  about  him  in  the  diplo- 
matic circles  of  Europe,  when  the  war  began,  and 
there  was  great  searching  of  heart  concerning  him  at 
home.  There  have  been  times  when  there  were  im- 
patient murmurs  that  another  sort  of  man  was  wanted 
in  his  chair — a  man  with  more  dash,  more  brilliancy, 
more  Napoleonic  efficiency.     Yet  in  the  contest  such 


110  ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

a  man  might  have  been  our  ruin.  A  brilliant  military- 
genius  might  have  wrecked  the  republic  on  the  rock 
of  military  despotism,  where  so  many  good  ships  have 
gone  down ;  whereas,  slow,  cautious,  honest  old  Abe 
only  took  our  rights  of  habeas  corpus,  and  other  civil 
privileges,  as  he  did  the  specie  of  old,  to  make  the 
legal  tender,  and  brought  it  all  back  safe  and  sound. 

Lincoln  was  a  strong  man,  but  his  strength  was  of 
a  peculiar  kind ;  it  was  not  aggressive  so  much  as 
passive,  and  among  passive  things  it  was  like  the 
strength  not  so  much  of  a  stone  buttress  as  of  a  wire 
cable.  It  was  strength  swaying  to  every  influence, 
yielding  on  this  side  and  on  that  to  popular  needs, 
yet  tenaciously  and  inflexibly  bound  to  carry  its  great 
end.  Probably  by  no  other  kind  of  strength  could 
our  national  ship  have  been  drawn  safely  through  so 
dreadful  a  channel.  Surrounded  by  all  sorts  of  con- 
flicting claims,  by  traitors,  by  half-hearted,  timid  men, 
by  border  State  men  and  free  State  men,  by  radical 
abolitionists  and  conservatives,  he  listened  to  all,  heard 
all,  weighed  all,  and  in  his  own  time  acted  by  his 
own  honest  convictions  in  the  fear  of  God,  and  thus 
simply  and  purely  he  did  the  greatest  work  that  has 
been  done  in  modern  times. 


CHAPTER   II. 

ULYSSES    SIMPSON   GRANT. 

A  General  "Wanted — A  Short  TVar  Expected — The  Young  Xapoleon — God's 
Revenge  Against  Slaver\' — The  Silent  Man  in  Galena — "  Tanning  Leather  " 
— Gen.  Grant's  Puritan  Descent — How  he  Loaded  the  Logs — His  West  Point 
Career — Service  in  Mexico^Marries  and  Leaves  the  Army — Wood-Cutting, 
Dunning  and  Leather-Selling — Enlists  against  the  Rebellion — Missouri  Cam- 
paign— Paducah  Campaign — Fort  Donclson  Campaign — Battle  of  Sliiloh — 
How  Grant  Lost  his  Temper — Vicksburg  Campaign — Lincoln  on  Grant's 
"Drinking" — Chattanooga — Grant's  Method  of  Making  a  Speech — Ap- 
pointed Lieutenant-General — The  Richmond  Campaign — "  Mr.  Grant  is  a 
Very  Obstinate  Man  " — Grant's  Qualifications  as  a  liulcr — Honesty — Gene- 
rosity to  Subordinates — Sound  Judgment  of  Men — Power  of  Holding  his 
Toncrue — Grant's  Sidewalk  Platform — Talks  Horse  to  Senator  Wade — "Wants 
Notliing  Said  "—The  Best  Man  for  Next  President 

When  the  perception  of  our  late  great  military  cri- 
sis first  came  upon  us,  and  we  found  ourselves  engaged 
in  an  actual  and  real  war,  our  first  inquiry  was  for  our 
General. 

For  years  and  years  there 'had  been  only  peace  talk 
and  peace  valuations  in  our  market.  There  had,  to 
be  sure,  been  some  frontier  skirmishing — a  campaign 
in  Mexico,  which  drew  off  our  more  restless  adventur- 
ers, and  gave  our  politicians  a  little  of  a  smart,  martial 
air,  in  rounding  their  periods,  and  pointing  their  allu- 
sions. We  had  played  war  in  Mexico  as  we  read  ro- 
mances, and  the  principal  interest  of  it  was,  after  all, 
confined  to  our  very  small  regular  army  of  some 
twenty-five  thousand  men,  where  some  got  promotions 
in  consequence  of  the  vacancies  made  in  this  or  that 
battle. 

Ill  ' 


112  ULYSSES     S.    GRANT. 

Gen.  Scott  won  European  renown  and  some  laurels 
in  this  country.  We  created  an  office  of  Lieutenant 
General  on  purpose  to  do  him  honor ;  but  the  people, 
after  all,  laughed  in  their  sleeves,  and  irreverently 
called  our  national  hero  "Old  Fuss  and  Feathers;"'  a 
nickname  which  went  far  to  show  that  whatever  his 
talents  in  the  field  might  be,  he  had  not  succeeded  in 
establishing  over  the  body  of  his  countrymen  the 
ascendency  which  strong  minds  hold  over  weak  ones. 

But  when  the  hour  of  our  trial  came  we  had  to  look 
to  him  as  our  leader,  and  Gen.  Scott  accepted  cheer- 
fully the  situation,  whose  reality  and  magnitude  neither 
he  nor  we,  nor  any  mortal  living  at  that  time,  per- 
ceived, or  could  estimate.  Seward  smiled  in  his  cabi- 
net chair,  and  spoke  of  the  affair  as  a  little  skirmish 
that  would  be  over  in  ninety  days.  A  battle  or  two, 
might  occur,  then  an  armistice,  and  then  "We,  Us  and 
Company"  would  walk  in  with  our  red  tape  and  cir- 
cumlocution office,  and  tie  up  everything  better  than 
before.  So  Scott  spread  his  maps  and  talked  cheer- 
fully, and  the  Washington  cabinet  congratulated  one 
another.  "This  is  to  be  my  last  campaign,"  said 
Scott,  "and  I  mean  it  to  be  my  best." 

The  country  listened  with  earnest  ears  now  to  what 
our  chief  military  man  said.  When  the  father  of  a 
family  is  lying  between  life  and  death,  there  is  no 
more  laughing  at  the  doctor — and  in  the  solemn  hush 
that  preceded  real  war,  there  was  no  more  sneering  at 
old  Fuss  and  Feathers.  People  wanted  to  believe  in 
him.  They  searched  out  his  old  exploits,  talked  of 
his  old  successes,  that  they  might  hope  and  believe 
that  they  had  a  deliverer  and  a  leader  in  their  midst. 


A   GENERAL   WANTED.  113 

Slowly,  surely,  it  began  to  appear  through  many  a 
defeat,  many  a  disaster;  through  days  and  nights 
when  men's  hearts  failed  them  for  fear,  and  for  looking 
for  the  things  that  were  coming  on  the  earth  ;  through 
all  such  signs  and  wonders  as  usher  in  great  convul- 
sions of  society — it  began  to  be  manifested  that  this 
nation  was  in  a  contest  for  which  there  were  no  prece- 
dents, which  was  to  be  as  wide  as  from  ocean  to  ocean, 
which  was  to  number  its  forces  by  millions,  and  for 
w^hich  all  former  rules  and  ordinances  of  war,  all  rec- 
ords of  campaigns  and  battles,  were  as  mere  obsolete 
ballads  and  old  songs.  The  inquiry  began  to  grow 
more  urgent :    Who  is  to  be  our  General  ? 

General  Scott  professed  that  the  work  was  too  great 
for  him,  but  he  called  to  his  right  hand  and  presented 
to  the  nation  6ne  whom  he  delighted  to  honor,  and 
who  was  announced  with  songs  and  cheerings  as  the 
young  Napoleon  of  America. 

The  nation  received  him  with  acclamation.  They 
wanted  a  young  Napoleon.^  A  young  Napoleon  was 
just  what  they  needed,  and  a  young  Napoleon  there- 
fore they  were  determined  to  believe  that  they  had ; 
and  for  a  while  nothing  was  heard  but  his  praises. 
Every  loyal  paper  was  on  its  knees  in  humble  expect- 
ancy, to  admire  and  to  defend,  but  not  to  criticise. 
Mothers  were  ready  to  send  their  sons  to  his  banner ; 
millionaires  offered  the  koys  of  their  treasure  chests 
for  his  commissariat ;  the  administration  bowed  to  his 
lightest  suggestion,  gave  him  all  he  asked,  hung  on 
his  lightest  word.  Everywhere  he  moved  amid  vic- 
torious  plaudits,   the   palms   and   honors  of   victory 


114  ULYSSES    S.    GRANT. 

everywhere  credited  to  him  in  advance  by  the  fond 
faith  of  the  whole  nation. 

We  waited  for  victories.  Our  men  were  burning 
with  enthusiasm — begging,  praying  to  be  led  to  the 
field,  and  yet  nothing  was  done.  "It  takes  time  to 
create  an  army,"  was  the  first  announcement  of  our 
chief  We  gave  him  time,  and  he  spent  it  in  reviews, 
in  preparations,  in  fortifications  and  entrenchments. 
The  time  he  took  gave  the  enemy  just  what  they  stood 
in  perishing  need  of — time  to  organize,  concentrate, 
drill,  arrange  with  Europe,  and  get  ready  for  a  four 
years'  conflict. 

It  was  God's  will  that  we  should  have  a  four  years' 
war,  and  therefore  when  we  looked  for  a  leader  he 
sent  us  Gen.  McClellan. 

It  was  God's  will  that  this  nation — the  North  as 
well  as  the  South — should  deeply  and  terribly  suffer 
for  the  sin  of  consenting  to  and  encouraging  the  great 
oppressions  of  the  South ;  that  the  ill-gotten  wealth 
which  had  arisen  from  striking  hands  with  oppression 
and  robbery,  should  be  paid  back  in  the  taxes  of  war ; 
that  the  blood  of  the  poor  slave,  that  had  cried  so 
many  years  from  the  ground  in  vain,  should  be  an- 
swered by  the  blood  of  the  sons  from  the  best  hearth 
stones  through  all  the  free  States;  that  the  slave 
mothers,  whose  tears  nobody  regarded,  should  have 
with  them  a  great  company  of  weepers,  North  and 
South — Rachels  weeping  for  their  children  and  refus- 
ing to  be  comforted ;  that  the  free  States,  who  refused 
to  listen  when  they  were  told  of  lingering  starvation, 
cold,  privation  and  barbarous  cruelty,  as  perpetrated 
on  the  slave,  should  have  lingering  starvation,  cold, 


god's  revenge  against  slavery.  115 

hunger  and  cruelty  doing  its  work  among  their  own 
sons,  at  the  hands  of  these  slave  masters,  with  whose 
sins  our  nation  had  connived. 

General  McClellan  was  like  those  kings  and  leaders 
we  read  of  in  the  Old  Testament,  whom  God  sent  to 
a  people  with  a  purpose  of  wrath  and  punishment. 

Slowly,  through  those  dark  days  of  rebuke  and  disas- 
ter, did  the  people  come  at  last  to  a  consciousness  that 
they  had  trusted  in  vain — that  such  a  continued  series 
of  disasters  were  not  exceptions  and  accidents,  but 
evidences  of  imbecility  and  incompetence  in  the  gov- 
erning power. 

Meanwhile  the  magnitude  of  this  colossal  war  had 
fully  revealed  itself — a  war  requiring  combinations 
and  forces  before  unheard  of,  as  different  from  those 
of  European  battles  as  the  prairies  of  the  West  differ 
from  Salisbury  Plain,  or  the  Mississippi  from  the 
Thames — and  we  again  feverishly  asked.  Where  is  our 
leader  ? 

We  had  faith  that  some  man  was  to  arise ;  but 
where  was  he  ?  Now  one  General,  and  now  another 
took  the  place  of  power,  and  we  hoped  and  confided, 
till  disaster  and  reverses  came  and  threw  us  on  our 
unanswered  inquiry. 

Now  it  is  very  remarkable  that  in  all  great  crises 
and  convulsions  of  society,  the  man  of  the  hour  gen- 
erally comes  from  some  obscure  quarter — silently, 
quietly,  unannounced,  unheralded,  without  prestige, 
and  makes  his  way  alone  and  single-handed. 

John  the  Baptist  said  to  the  awakened  crowd,  thril- 
ling with  vague  expectation  of  a  coming  Messiah, 
"There  standeth  one  among  you  whom  ye  know  not," 


116  ULYSSES   S.    GRANT. 

and  the  same  declaration  might  amount  to  a  general 
principle,  which  would  hold  good  in  most  cases  when 
the  wants  of  a  new  era  in  society  call  for  a  new  leader. 

When  France  lay  convulsed  after  the  terrible  up- 
heavings  of  the  French  revolution,  there  was  one  man 
strong  enough  to  govern  her,  to  bring  back  settled 
society,  law  and  order — but  he  was  doing  duty  in  an 
obscure  place  as  corporal  of  artillery ;  and  in  like 
manner  when  the  American  war  broke  out,  the  Gen- 
eral who  was  to  be  strong  enough,  and  wise  enough, 
and  energetic  enough  to  lead  our  whole  army  to  vic- 
tory, was  an  obscure,  silent,  sensible  man,  who  was 
keeping  a  leather  and  saddle  store  in  Galena,  111. 

He  was  a  man  principally  to  be  noted  for  saying 
little,  and  doing  with  certainty  and  completeness  the 
duty  he  happened  to  have  in  hand.  If  he  failed  in  any 
of  the  points  required  in  a  successful  store-keeper  in  a 
Western  town,  it  was  in  the  gift  of  talking.  He  had 
no  opinions  on  politics,  no  theories  about  the  govern- 
ment of  the  country,  to  put  at  the  service  of  custom- 
ers. The  petty  squabbles  of  local  politics  he  despised. 
When  one  endeavored  to  engage  him  in  a  discussion 
of  some  such  matter,  he  is  said  to  have  answered : 

"  I  don't  know  any  thing  of  party  politics,  and  I 
don't  want  to.  There  is  one  subject  on  which  I  feel 
perfectly  at  home.  Talk  to  me  of  that  and  I  shall  be 
happy  to  hear  you." 

''What  is  that?" 

"  Tanning  leather.'''' 

Yet  this  quiet  man,  who  confined  his  professions  of 
knowledge  entirely  to  the  business  he  took  in  hand, 
was  an  educated  man,  who  had  passed  with  credit 


grant's  puritan  descent.  117' 

through  the  military  academy  at  West  Point,  gradu- 
ated with  honor,  been  promoted  for  meritorious  ser- 
vice in  the  Mexican  war  to  the  rank  of  captain,  and 
whose  powers  of  conversation,  when  he  chooses  to 
converse  on  any  subject  befitting  an  educated  man, 
are  said  by  those  who  know  him  best,  to  be  quite 
remarkable. 

In  these  sketches  of  our  distinguished  men,  we  have, 
whenever  possible,  searched  somewhat  into  their  ped- 
igree ;  for  we  have  firm  faith  in  the  old  maxim  that 
blood  will  tell. 

It  is  interesting  to  know  that  there  are  authentic 
documents  existing,  by  which  Gen.  Grant's  family  may 
be  traced  through  a  line  of  Puritan  patriots  far  back 
to  England. 

A  gentleman  in  Hartford,  justly  celebrated  for  his 
research  in  these  matters,  has  kindly  offered  us  the 
following  particulars : 

"  On  the  first  page  of  a  thick  little  memorandum 
book  which  is  now  before  me,  well  preserved  in  its 
original  sheepskin  binding,  are  the  following  entries, 
the  obsolete  spelling  of  which  sufficiently  attests  their 
antiquity : 

May  the  29  16.  45,  Mathew  Grant  and  Susanna  ware 
maried. 

Mathew  Grant  was  then  three  and  fortey  yeares  of 
age,  seven  moneths  and  eyghtene  dayes ;  borne  in  the 
yeare,  1601.  October  27  Tuesdaye. 

Susannah  Graunt  was  then  three  and  fourtey  yeares 
of  age  seuen  weeks  &  4  dayes ;  borne  in  the  yeare 
1602  April Jhe  5  Mondaye." 

This,  as  appears,  was  a  second  marriage,  and  Susan- 


118  ULYSSES   S.    GRANT. 

nah  was  widow  of  one  William  Rockwell ;  and  im- 
mediately after  the  record,  follow  the  names  of  the 
children  of  her  first  marriage,  five  in  number,  Ruth 
Rockwell,  the  second  daughter  of  Susannah  Grant, 
married  Christopher  Huntington,  of  Norwich,  and 
their  great  granddaughter,  Martha  Huntington,  mar- 
ried Noah  Grant,  a  great  grandson  of  Mathew. 

From  this  marriage  came  a  second  Noah  Grant,  who 
was  a  captain  in  the  old  French  war,  and  afterwards 
settled  in  Coventry,  Conn.  The  third  son  of  this 
Captain  Noah  Grant,  who  also  bore  the  name  of  Noah, 
resided  in  Coventry,  and  had  a  son  named  for  the 
Hon.  Jesse  Root,  Chief  Justice  of  the  Superior  Court 
of  Connecticut  from  1796  to  1807,  and  this  Jesse  Root 
Grant  is  the  father  of  Ulysses  S.  Grant,  the  man  whom 
this  war  anointed  to  be  our  leader  and  captain. 

The  Mathew  and  Susanna  Grant  whose  marriage 
record  is  here  given,  came  first  to  America  in  the 
Mary  and  John,  in  the  company  which  settled  Dor- 
chester, Mass.,  in  1630.  They  sailed  from  Plymouth, 
in  Devonshire,  March  20th,  and  arrived  at  Nantasket, 
May  30th. 

The  style  and  spirit  of  these  colonists  may  be  in- 
ferred from  the  following  words  of  Roger  Clap,  who 
was  one  of  the  passengers : 

"These  godly  people  resolved  to  live  together; 
and  therefore  they  made  choice  of  these  two  reverend 
servants  of  God,  Mr.  John  Wareham,  and  Mr.  John 
Maverick,  to  be  their  ministers ;  so  they  kept  a  solemn 
day  of  fasting  in  the  New  Hospital  in  Plymouth,  Eng- 
land, spending  it  in  preaching  and  praying ;  where 
that  worthy  man  of  God,  Mr.  John  White,  of  Dorches- 


grant's  puritan  descent.  119 

ter,  in  Dorset,  was  present  and  preached  unto  us  tlie 
Word  of  God,  in  the  fore  part  of  the  day,  and  in  the 
latter  part  of  the  day.  As  the  people  did  solemnly 
make  choice  of  and  call  those  godly  ministers  to  their 
office,  so  also  the  Rev.  Mr.  Wareham  and  Mr.  ^Maver- 
ick  did  accept  thereof,  and  expressed  the  same.  So 
we  came  by  the  good  hand  of  the  Lord  through  the 
deeps  comfortably." 

Thus  Mathew  Grant  and  his  brethren,  even  before 
leaving  the  old  country,  were  gathered  into  church 
estate  for  the  new,  and  the  planters  of  Dorchester  came 
thither  as  a  Puritan  church,  duly  organized,  with  their 
chosen  and  ordained  pastor  aftd  teacher.  In  1G35-6, 
Mr.  Wareham  and  a  great  part  of  his  flock  removed  to 
Connecticut,  and  settled  a  new  Dorchester,  afterwards 
named  Windsor.  Mathew  Grant  was  one  of  these 
earlier  settlers,  and  was  from  the  first  a  prominent  man 
in  the  church  and  town.  For  many  years  he  was  the 
principal  surveyor  of  lands  in  Windsor,  town  clerk 
and  deacon,  and  the  church  records  speak  highly  of 
his  blameless  life.  He  died  in  1681,  at  the  age  of 
eighty. 

Thus  from  the  little  body  of  men  who  assembled 
with  fasting  and  prayer  in  Plymouth,  to  form  them- 
selves into  a  New  England  colony,  descended  in  the 
course  of  time,  a  leader  and  commander  that  was  to 
stay  up  the  hands  of  our  great  nation  in  the  time  of 
its  severest  trial. 

The  genealogist  who  has  traced  the  pedigree  of 
Grant  back  to  England,  remarks,  that  in  the  veins  of 
his  family  was,  by  successive  marriages,  intermingled 


120  ULYSSES   S.    GRANT. 

the  blood  of  many  of  the  best  old  New  England  fam- 
ilies. 

Gen.  Grant  is  a  genuine  son  of  New  England,  there- 
fore to  be  looked  on  as  a  vigorous  offshoot  of  the  old 
Puritan  stock.  His  father  removed  from  Coventry, 
first  to  Pennsylvania,  afterwards  to  Ohio,  and  finally 
to  Illinois,  where  the  Ulysses  of  these  many  wander- 
ings received  his  classic  name.  He  appears  to  be  a 
man  of  no  ordinary  class  for  shrewdness  and  good 
sense.  Gen.  Grant's  mother  is  one  of  those  sedate, 
sensible,  serious  women,  whose  households  are  fit 
nurseries  for  heroes.  Industry,  economy,  patience, 
temperance  and  religion,  were  the  lessons  of  his  early 
days.  The  writer  of  the  "  Tanner  Boy  "  has  embodied, 
probably  on  good  authority,  some  anecdotes  of  the 
childhood  of  the  boy,  which  show  that  there  was  in 
him  good  stuff  to  make  a  man  of  One  of  these  is 
worth  telling : 

"  I  want  you  to  drive  the  team  to  such  a  spot  in  the 
woods,"  said  the  father,  "  where  you  will  find  the  men 
ready  to  load  it  with  logs,  and  you  will  then  drive  it 
home." 

The  boy  drove  to  the  spot,  found  the  logs,  but  no 
men. 

Instead  of  sitting  down  to  crack  nuts  and  wait,  as 
most  boys  would,  Ulysses  said  to  himself,  "  I  was  sent 
to  bring  these  logs,  and  bring  them  I  must,  men  or  no 
men,"  and  so  by  some  ingenious  mechanical  arrange- 
ments, he  succeeded  in  getting  them  on  to  the  cart 
alone,  and  drove  home  with  them  quietly,  as  if  it  were 
a  matter  of  course. 


WEST    POINT    CAREER.  121 

"Why,  my  son,"  exclaimed  his  father,  "where  are 
the  men?" 

"  I  don't  know,  and  I  don't  care,"  said  the  boy.  "  I 
got  the  load  without  them." 

This  boy  was  surely  father  to  the  man  who  took 
Vicksburg. 

There  are  other  anecdotes  given  of  his  fighting  a 
schoolboy  who  traduced  Washington ;  of  his  steady 
perseverance  in  his  school  studies;  and  of  a  school 
saying  of  his,  that  caii't  was  never  a  word  in  his  dic- 
tionary. His  industry  and  energy  caused  his  appoint- 
ment to  West  Point,  where  the  young  tanner  boy  took 
rank  with  the  scions  of  the  so-styled  Southern  aristoc- 
racy. It  is  recorded  in  his  new  position  that  certain 
sneers  on  his  industrial  calling  were  promptly  resisted, 
and  that  he  insisted  upon  the  proper  deference  to 
himself  and  his  order,  as  a  boy  of  the  working  class  as, 
and  maintained  it  by  a  stalwart  good  right  aim, 
which  nobody  cared  to  bring  down  in  anger. 

Grant  graduated  with  respectable  credit  from  West 
.Point,  in  1843.  He  is  said  to  have  been  the  best 
rider  in  his  class,  but  not  remarkable  otherwise.  In 
the  same  class  were  Gen.  W.  B.  Franklin,  Gen.  I.  T. 
Quimby,  Gen.  J.  J.  Reynolds,  Gen.  C.  C.  Augur,  Gen. 
C.  S.  Hamilton,  Gen.  F.  Steele,  Gen.  R.  Ingalls,  and 
Gen.  H.  M.  Judah,  all  useful  and  a  number  of  them 
eminent  officers  in  the  Union  Army  during  the  Rebell- 
ion. There  were  also  in  the  same  class  several  mem- 
bers who  adhered  to  the  rebel  cause  ;  R.  S.  Ripley,  S. 
G.  French,  F.  Gardner,  who  surrendered  Port  Hudson 
to  Gen.  Banks,  E.  B.  Holloway,  and  one  or  two  others. 
At  his  graduation,  no  second  lieutenancy  was  vacant 


122  ULYSSES   S.    GRANT. 

in  the  United  States  Army,  and  Grant  therefore  re- 
ceived a  brevet  commission  as  second  lieutenant  in  the 
Fourth  United  States  Infantry.  With  his  regiment  or 
detachments  of  it,  he  now  served  for  a  time  on  the 
western  frontier,  near  St.  Louis,  up  the  Red  River, 
and  elsewhere.  When  in  1845,  Gen.  Taylor  was  or- 
dered into  Texas,  the  Fourth  Regiment  and  Grant 
with  it  formed  part  of  his  force,  and  they  continued 
in  active  service  throughout  the  Mexican  War.  In 
this  war,  Lieutenant  Grant  showed  great  readiness, 
sense,  and  courage.  He  was  in  every  one  of  its  im- 
portant battles  except  Buena  Vista ;  to  us  the  words 
of  one  of  his  eulogists,  "  in  all  the  battles  in  which 
any  one  man  could  be."  He  was  repeatedly  men- 
tioned in  the  reports  of  his  commanding  officers  for 
meritorious  conduct.  He  was  appointed  first  Lieuten- 
ant on  the  field  of  battle,  at  Molino  del  Rey,  for  gal- 
lantry;  and  was  breveted  Captain  for  meritorious  con- 
duct in  the  battle  of  Chapultepec. 

In  1848,  after  the  end  of  the  war,  Capt.  Grant  mar- 
ried a  Miss  Dent,  from  near  St.  Louis,  and  for  some 
years  lived  in  the  monotonous  routine  of  the  peace  es- 
tablishment ;  at  Detroit,  at  Sackett's  Harbor,  and  in 
Oregon.  To  this  period  of  his  life  belongs  a  story 
that  being  a  good  chess  player,  and  very  fond  of  the 
game,  he  found  while  at  Sackett's  Harbor  an  opponent 
of  superior  force.  With  this  champion  our  stubborn 
infantry  captain  used  to  play,  and  as  regularly  to  get 
beaten.  But  he  played  on,  and  was  accustomed  to  in- 
sist upon  protracting  the  sitting  until  his  opponent 
had  actually  become  so  tired  that  his  mind  would  not 


ENLISTS   FOR   THE    WAR.  123 

work;  when  Grant   would   comfortably  balance   the 
account. 

His  full  commission  as  captain  reached  him  in  Aug- 
ust, 1853,  but  in  1854,  having  made  up  his  mind  that 
there  was  to  be  a  long  peace,  he  resigned  his  captain- 
cy and  set  about  establishing  himself  in  civil  life.  His 
first  attempt  was,  to  manage  a  small  farm  to  the  south- 
west of  St.  Louis,  where  he  used  to  cut  wood  and  haul 
it  to  Carondelet,  delivering  it  himself  He  diversified 
his  year  during  summer,  with  acting  as  a  collector  of 
debts  in  that  region.  But  there  is  nothing  to  show 
that  he  enjoyed  either  wood  cutting  or  dunning,  and 
he  certainly  did  not  grow  rich  at  them.  In  1859,  he 
tried  in  vain  to  get  the  appointment  of  county  engin- 
eer ;  and  he  -then  went  into  the  leather  trade,  in  part- 
nership with  his  father,  at  Galena.  The  firm  quickly 
attained  high  standing  for  intelligence  and  integrity, 
and  the  business,  at  the  breaking  out  of  the  war,  was 
prosperous. 

It  is  narrated  that  Grant's  determination  to  enter 
the  service  against  the  rebellion  was  taken  and  stated 
along  with  the  drawing  on  of  his  coat,  instantly  upon 
reading  the  telegram  which  announced  the  surrender 
of  Sumter.  He  came  into  the  store  in  the  morning, 
read  the  dfspatch,  and  as  he  took  up  his  coat,  which 
he  had  laid  off,  and  put  it  on  again,  he  observed  in 
his  quiet  way,  "  The  government  educated  me  for  the 
army,  and  although  I  have  served  through  one  war,  I 
am  still  a  little  in  debt  to  the  government,  and  willing 
to  discharge  the  obligation." 

Grant,  bringing  with  him  a  company  of  volunteers 
that  he  had  enlisted,  in  a  few  days  appeared  in  the 


124  ULYSSES   S.    GRANT. 

council-clianiber  of  governor  Yates,  of  Illinois,  and  ten- 
dered his  services  to  the  country  as  volunteer.  The 
governor  immediately  proposed  to  place  him  on  his 
own  staff,  as  mustering  officer  of  volunteers.  Grant 
expressed  a  wish  for  more  active  service,  but  was  over- 
ruled for  the  time  by  the  wishes  of  the  governor, 
who  represented  that  his  military  education  and  expe- 
rience would  be  of  great  advantage  in  forming  the 
raw  material  now  to  be  made  into  an  army. 

In  this  comparatively  humble  sphere  Grant  began 
his  second  military  career.  He  did  with  all  his  might 
whatever  he  did,  and  his  exertions  in  obtaining  volun- 
teers were  such  that  the  quota  of  Illinois  was  more 
than  full  at  the  appointed  time,  and  at  once  set  in  the 
field.  In  June,  1861,  he  entered  actual  service,  with 
the  rank  of  colonel  of  volunteers  ;  and  took  hold  of 
work  with  such  purpose  and  efficiency  that  he  was 
almost  immediately  elevated  to  be  Brigadier  General. 

The  patriotic  and  energetic  Governor  Yates,  gives 
the  followina:  account  of  the  first  months  of  Grant's 
services  during  the  Rebellion. 

"In  April,  1861,  he  tendered  his  personal  services 
to  me,  saying,  that  he  '  had  been  the  recipient  of  a 
military  education  at  West  Point,  and  that  now,  when 
the  country  was  involved  in  a  war  for  its  preservation 
and  safety,  he  thought  it  his  duty  to  offer  his  services 
in  defense  of  the  Union,  and  that  he  would  esteem  it 
a  privilege  to  be  assigned  to  any  position  where  he 
could  be  useful.'  The  plain,  straightforward  demeanor 
of  the  man,  and  the  modesty  and  earnestness  which 
characterized  his  offer  of  assistance,  at  once  awakened 
a  lively  interest  in  him,  and  impressed  me  with  a  de- 


FIRST   DAYS   OF    THE   WAR.  125 

sire  to  secure  his  counsel  for  the  benefit  of  volunteer 
organization  then  forming  for  Government  service.  At 
first  I  assigned  him  a  desk  in  the  Executive  office ; 
and  his  familiarity  with  military  organization  and  reg- 
ulations made  him  an  invaluable  assistant  in  my  own 
and  the  office  of  the  Adjutant-General.  Soon  his  ad- 
mirable qualities  as  a  piilitary  commander  became  appa- 
rent, and  I  assigned  him  to  command  of  the  camps  of 
organization  at  '  Camp  Yates,'  Springfield,  '  Camp 
Grant,'  Mattoon,  and  '  Camp  Douglas,'  at  Anna,  Union 
County.  *  *  *  "  The  Twenty-first  regiment  of 
Illinois  volunteers,  *  *  *  had  become  very  much 
demoralized  under  the  thirty  days'  experiment,  and 
doubts  arose  in  relation  to  their  acceptance  for  a  long- 
er period.  I  was  much  perplexed  to  find  an  efficient 
and  experienced  officer  to  take  command  of  the  regi- 
ment, and  take  it  into  the  three  years'  service.  *  * 
*  I  decided  to  offer  the  command  to  Captain  Grant, 
at  Covington,  Kentucky,  tendering  him  the  colonelcy. 
He  immediately  reported,  accepting  the  commission, 
taking  rank  as  colonel  of  that  regiment  from  the  15th 
of  June,  1861.  Thirty  days  previous  to  that  time, 
the  regiment  numbered  over  one  thousand  men  ;  but 
in  consequence  of  laxity  of  discipline  of  the  first  com- 
manding officer,  and  other  discouraging  obstacles  con- 
nected with  the  acceptance  of  troops  at  that  time, 
but  six  hundred  and  three  men  were  found  willing  to 
enter  the  three  years'  service.  In  less  than  ten  days 
Colonel  Grant  filled  the  regiment  to  the  maximum 
standard,  and  brought  it  to  a  state  of  discipline  sel- 
dom attained  in  the  volunteer  service  in  so  short  a 

time.     His  -was  the  only  regiment  that  left  the  camp  of 
9 


126  ULYSSES   S.    GRANT. 

organization  on  foot.  -5^  *  *  Colonel  Grant  was 
afterwards  assigned  to  command  for  the  protection 
of  the  Quincy  and  Palmyra,  and  Hannibal  and  St. 
Josephs  Railroads.  He  soon  distinguished  himself  as 
a  regimental  commander  in  the  field,  and  his  claims 
for  increased  rank  were  recognized  by  his  friends  in 
Springfield,  and  his  promotion  insisted  upon,  before 
his  merits  and  services  were  fairly  understood  at 
Washington," 

Grant's  brigadier's  commission  reached  him  August 
9th,  1861,  and  his  first  service  under  it  was,  a  march  to 
Ironton,  in  Missouri,  for"  the  purpose  of  preventing  an 
attack  from  the  rebel  Jeff  Thompson.  Grant  had 
already  once  declined  a  brigadiership  when  offered 
him  by  Gov.  Yates,  for  the  reason  that  he  considered 
the  appointment  more  properly  due  to  another  per- 
son ;  but  though  the  youngest  of  the  colonels  in  Mis- 
souri, he  had  been  acting  brigadier  there. 

Soon  after  this  he  was  placed  in  command  at  the 
great  central  point  of  Cairo,  which  was  the  key  of  the 
West. 

The  country  was  full  of  confusion  and  disorder. 
Rebel  sympathizers  every  where,  openly  and  secretly, 
were  embarrassing  the  Federal  and  assisting  the  rebel 
army.  The  professedly  neutral  State  of  Kentucky 
was  used  as  the  camping  ground  and  retreat  of  these 
forces  which  thus  annoyed  our  army.  Grant  quietly 
determined  to  command  this  dangerous  territory. 
He  took  the  town  of  Paducah,  a  strong  post  on  the 
Ohio  River,  near  the  mouth  of  the  Tennessee  River, 
in  Kentucky,  by  which  he  at  once  gained  possession  of 
interior  navigable  watfers,  which  the  traitors  had  been 


PADUCAH   CAMPAIGN.  127 

using  for  their  own  purposes.  The  strength  and  de- 
cision with  which  he  took  possession  of  the  town  in- 
timidated all  rebel  sympathizers.  He  then  issued  the 
following  address  to  the  inhabitants,  which  is  as  good 
a  specimen  of  condensed  and  effective  military  style 
as  we  have  on  record : 

"  I  am  come  among  you,  not  as  an  enemy,  but  as 
your  fellow- American ;  not  to  maltreat  and  annoy  you, 
but  to  respect  and  enforce  the  rights  of  all  loyal  citi- 
zens. I  am  here  to  defend  you  against  the  common 
enemy,  who  has  planted  his  guns  on  your  soil,  and 
fired  upon  you ;  and  to  assist  the  authority  and  sov- 
ereignty of  your  government.  I  have  nothing  to  do 
with  opinions,  and  shall  deal  only  with  armed  rebell- 
ion and  its  aiders  and  abetters.  You  can  pursue  your 
usual  avocations  without  fear.  The  strong  arm  of  the 
government  is  here  to  protect  its  friends,  and  punish 
its  enemies.  Whenever  it  is  manifest  that  you  are 
able  to  defend  yourselves,  maintain  the  authority  of 
the  government,  and  protect  the  rights  of  loyal  citi- 
zens, I  shall  withdraw  the  forces  under  my  command. 

IT.  S.  Grant, 

Brig.  Gen.  Commanding. 

While  in  command  at  Cairo,  Grant  used  to  dress 
rather  carelessly,  very  much  after  Gen.  Taylor's  fash- 
ion ;  he  went  about  wearing  an  old  "  stove-pipe  hat," 
and  always  with  a  cigar.  Some  one,  it  is  said,  once 
jeered  about  the  "stove-pipe  general""  and  his  cigars, 
and  was  silenced  by  the  reply  that  "such  a  bright 
stove-pipe  might  be  excused  for  smoking." 


128  ULYSSES   S.    GRANT. 

The  remainder  of  General  Grant's  military  career 
must  be  narrated  with  a  brevity  which  by  no  means 
does  justice  to  the  subject.  It  may  be  said  to  con- 
sist of  five  campaigns ;  those  of  Fort  Donelson,  Cor- 
inth and  luka,  Vicksburg,  Chattanooga,  and  Rich- 
mond. Of  these,  each  pointed  out  its  commander  as 
the  best  man  for  the  next,  until  by  simple  upward 
gravitation  of  natural  fitness,  he  rose  to  his  present 
great  military  post  of  general  of  all  the  armies  of  the 
United  States. 

Grant's  operations  in  Northern  Missouri,  his  dash 
on  Belmont,  and  his  seizure  of  Paducah,  though  all 
creditable  military  services,  were  thrown  into  the 
shade  by  the  brilliant  Fort  Donelson  campaign,  which 
opened  the  career  of  Union  successes  in  the  West. 

The  Fort  Donelson  expedition  was  intended  to 
break  in  two  the  rebel  defensive  line,  which  stretched 
the  whole  length  of  the  State  of  Kentucky,  from  Co- 
lumbus on  the  Mississippi,  through  Bowling  Green,  to 
Cumberland  Gap.  On  this  line,  the  rebels,  under 
General  A.  S.  Johnston,  stood  looking  northward  with 
threatening  and  defiant  aspect.  Grant  saw  that  if  he 
could  seize  Forts  Henry  and  Donelson,  which  had  been 
built  to  shut  up  the  Tennessee  and  Cumberland  rivers, 
the  Union  gunboats  could  range  up  and  down  through 
the  heart  of  rebeldom,  and  the  Union  armies  with 
them,  and  that  thus  the  great  rebel  defensive  line,  cut 
through  in  the  middle,  would  be  broken  as  a  chain  is 
when  a  link  is  destroyed.  He  therefore  asked  leave 
of  his  immediate  superior,  Halleck,  to  take  the  forts ; 
received  it,  concerted  his  plan  of  attack  with  Admiral 
Foote,   and   moved  from  Cairo,   February  2d,  1862. 


FORT  DOXELSOX  CAMPAIGN.  129 

The  success  of  this  expedition  is  well  known.  It 
should  be  recorded,  however,  even  in  this  short  sum- 
mary, that  to  Grant  is  due  the  credit  of  possessing  the 
military  tact  and  promptness  that  showed  him  when 
to  make  the  decisive  attack,  and  impelled  him  to  do 
it.  This  time  was  after  that  considerable  success  of 
the  rebel  sally  from  Fort  Donelson  on  Saturday,  Feb. 
15th,  under  Pillow,  which  drove  away  so  large  a  por- 
tion of  the  Union  army  from  its  place,  and  indeed  left 
room  enough  for  the  whole  rebel  force  to  walk  out  of 
the  fort  and  escape,  if  they  had  so  chosen.  This  was 
done  while  Grant  had  gone  to  consult  with  Admiral 
Foote.  When  he  came  back,  and  saw  how  his  troops 
had  been  driven,  to  any  common  mind  the  case  would 
have  seemed  a  pretty  bad  one ;  but  Grant  really  does 
not  appear  to  have  seen  any  bad  side  to  any  case  he 
had  charge  of  during  the  war.  At  Belmont,  when  he 
was  told  that  he  was  surrounded,  he  simply  answered, 
"  Well,  then,  we  must  cut  our  way  out."  His  own  de- 
scription, afterwards  given  to  Gen.  Sherman,  at  Shiloh, 
of  the  impression  now  made  on  his  mind  by  seeing  how 
his  troops  had  been  pounded  and  driven,  was  as  fol- 
lows :  "On  riding  upon  the  field,  I  saw  that  either  side 
was  ready  to  give  way  if  the  other  showed  a  bold 
front.  I  took  the  opportunity,  and  ordered  an  advance 
along  the  whole  line."  In  both  cases,  the  thing  was 
done. 

At  daylight  on  Sunday,  the  16th,  Gen.  Buckner, 
(whose  two  superior  officers,  Floyd  and  Pillow,  had 
run  away,)  sent  a  flag  of  truce  asking  for  commission- 
ers to  consider  terms  of  capitulation.  Grant  replied 
by  the  bearer,  in  a  letter,  two  of  whose  phrases  have 


130  ULYSSES   S.    GRANT. 

become  permanent  contributions  to  the  proverbial  part 
of  the  English  language : 

"Yours  of  this  date,  proposing  an  armistice,  and 
appointment  of  commissioners  to  settle  terms  of  capit- 
ulation, is  just  received.  No  terms  other  than  uncon- 
ditional and  immediate  surrender  can  be  accepted.  I 
propose  to  move  immediately  upon  your  works." 

Buckner's  reply  was  in  a  very  disgusted  tone,  and 
it  may  be  excused  to  him  under  the  circumstances, 
that  he  used  some  very  curious  explanatory  phrases, 
and  that  he  called  names.  But  he  came  down,  though 
it  was  from  an  extremely  high  horse,  rejoining : 

"The  distribution  of  the  forces  under  my  command, 
incident  to  an  unexpected  change  of  commanders,  and 
the  overwhelming  force  under  your  command,  compel 
me,  notwithstanding  the  brilliant  success  of  the  con- 
federate arms  yesterday,  to  accept  the  ungenerous  and 
unchivalrous  terms  which  you  propose." 

The  correctness  of  Grant's  estimate  of  this  whole 
movement  was  well  proved  by  its  instantaneous  result 
— the  evacuation  of  Columbus  at  one  end  of  the  rebel 
line,  and  of  Bowling  Green  in  the  middle,  and  the 
falling  back  of  the  whole  rebellion  down  to  the  south- 
ern boundary  of  Tennessee.  The  first  great  victory 
since  Bull  Run,  the  tirst  important  campaign  in  the 
West,  it  encouraged  and  elevated  the  spirits  of  the 
whole  North,  and  in  equal  measure  it  alarmed  and  en- 
feebled the  South.  It  had  flung  back  the  rebellion 
two  hundred  miles,  along  the  whole  length  of  Ken- 
tucky, across  that  State  and  Tennessee.  With  soldier- 
ly promptitude  and  energy.  Grant  followed  up  his  vic- 
tory by  pushing  the  enemy,  according  to  the  Napole- 


THE  BATTLE  OF  SHILOH.  131 

onic  maxim,  that   "victory  is,  to  march  ten  leagues, 
beat  the  enemy,   and  pursue  him  ten  leagues  more." 

Immediately  after  Donelson,  Grant  was  made^ major 
general  of  volunteers  by  commission  dated  on  the  day 
of  the  fall  of  the  fort,  and  was  placed  in  command  of 
the  "Military  District  of  West  Tennessee,"  consisting 
of  a  long  triangle  with  its  northern  point  at  Cairo,  its 
base  at  the  south,  on  the  Mississippi  State  line,  and  its 
sides  the  Tennessee  and  Mississippi  rivers.  Thus  pro- 
moted. Grant  had  already  pushed  southward.  Foote's 
gunboats  ascended  the  Cumberland,  the  troops  kept 
abreast  of  them;  Clarksville,  with  twenty  days'' sub- 
sistence for  Grant's  whole  army,  was  occu^^ied  on  Feb. 
20th,  four  days  after  the  capture  of  Donelson;  and 
on  the  23d,  the  advance  of  Buell's  army,  operating  in 
conjunction  with  Grant's,  entered  Nashville. 

When  the  rebel  military  line  already  mentioned, 
running  lengthwise  of  the  State  of  Kentucky,  was 
broken  up  by  Grant's  getting  through  and  behind  it 
at  Fort  Donelson,  the  rebel  leaders  sought  to  hold 
another  east  and  west  line,  coinciding  nearly  with  the 
southern  line  of  Tennessee,  along  the  important  Mem- 
phis and  Charleston  Railroad,  and  their  commander  in 
the  West,  Albert  Sydney  Johnston,  set  about  concen- 
trating his  forces  at  Corinth,  on  that  road.  Halleck, 
by  this  time  commanding  the  whole  Department  of 
the  Mississippi,  now  prepared  to  attack  Corinth.  It 
was  with  this  design  that  Grant's  army  was  sent  up 
the  Tennessee,  and  encamped  at  Shiloh.  But  the 
rebels  did  not  wait  to  be  attacked.  They  advanced 
themselves,  with  the  bold  and  judicious  design  of 
beating  the  army  at  Shiloh,   and   then  of  marching 


132  ULYSSES   S.    GRANT. 

northward,  regaining  all  the  ground  they  had  lost, 
and  retaliating  by  an  invasion  of  the  States  north  of 
the  Ohio. 

This  hardy  attempt  was  well  nigh  successful.  The 
night  before  the  battle  of  Shiloh,  Beauregard,  as  the 
rebel  council  of  war  separated,  had  prophesied:  "To- 
morrow night  we  sleep  in  the  enemy's  camp."  The 
sudden  and  vehement  assault  of  the  morning,  main- 
tained with  tremendous  and  pertinacious  fury  all  day 
long,  had  steadily  crushed  the  Union  army  backward 
towards  the  Tennessee  river,  until  towards  sunset  it 
had  been  pounded  into  a  heterogeneous,  irregular  line 
of  desperate  fighters,  and  behind  them  a  great  mass 
of  terrified  and  disheartened  runaways,  hiding  under 
the  river  bank.  What  the  heathen  called  Fortune, 
what  Christians  recognize  as  an  overruling  Providence, 
caused  a  conjuncture  of  circumstances  by  which,  be- 
tween night  and  morning,  the  relative  number  and 
spirits  of  the  troops  on  both  sides,  and  the  result  of 
the  fight,  were  totally  reversed.  These  circumstances 
were,  the  powerful  resistance  offered,  at  the  end  of 
the  Sunday's  disastrous  fight,  to  the  final  charges  of 
the  rebels,  by  the  artillery  massed  at  the  left  end  or 
key  of  the  Union  position,  close  to  the  river ;  by  the 
further  obstacle  of  a  ravine  stretching  back  from  the 
river  before  the  Union  lines  just  at  that  point ;  by 
the  powerful  effect  of  the  monstrous  shells  sent  up 
this  ravine  and  into  the  rebel  lines  from  the  two  Union 
gunboats,  Tyler  and  Lexington ;  and  finall}^,  by  the 
coming  upon  the  field  of  the  advance  of  Buell's  army. 
Beauregard's  men  slept  in  the  Union  camp,  as  he  had 
said,  but  during  the  night  Buell's  troops  and  Gen.  Lewis 


THE    BATTLE    OF    SHILOH,  133 

Wallace's  division  came  upon  the  field.  Monday  morn- 
ing, instead  of  last  night's  picture  of  30,000  rebels, 
flushed  with  all  day's  victory,  against  at  most  23,000 
disorganized  and  all  but  overpowered  Union  troops, 
the  daylight  broke  on  a  Union  army  of  50,000,  being 
Grant's  23,000,  somewhat  refreshed  and  reorganized, 
and  entirely  inspirited;  and  27,000  reinforcements, 
fresh  and  unbroken ;  while  the  rebel  army,  exhausted 
by  its  own  efforts,  had  received  no  increase,  had  lost 
by  stragglers,  had  rested  ill  in  the  cold  rain,  and  had 
been  all  night  long  awakened  every  few  minutes  by 
the  unwelcome  reveillee  of  the  great  gunboat  shells  that 
were  flung  amongst  them  from  the  river.  Weary  and 
overweighted  as  they  were,  the  rebels  fought  well, 
however,  and  it  was  not  until  four  in  the  afternoon 
that  they  retreated,  fighting  still,  and  in  good  order, 
toward  Corinth,  whence  they  had  set  out. 

When  the  rebels  first  attacked.  Grant  was  at  Savan- 
nah, seven  miles  down  the  river.  Hastening  back,  he 
was  on  the  field  at  the  earliest  possible  moment,  and 
did  whatever  could  be  done  to  withstand  the  tremen- 
dous force  of  the  rebel  advance.  When  Buell  came 
upon  the  field  toward  night,  the  aspect  of  affairs  so 
struck  him  that  his  first  inquiry  of  Grant  was,  what 
preparations  he  had  made  for  retreat, 

"I  have  not  despaired  of  whipping  them  yet,"  was 
the  thoroughly  characteristic:! eply.  One  account  adds, 
that  when  Buell  urged  that  a  prudent  general  ought 
to  provide  for  possibilities  of  defeat,  and  repeated  his 
inquiry.  Grant  pointed  to  his  transports  and  said, 
"  Don't  you  see  those  boats  ?"  "Yes,"  said  Buell,  "but 
they  will  not  carry  more  than  ten  thousand,  and  we  have 


134  ULYSSES   S.    GRANT. 

more  than  thirty  thousand."  "Well,"  returned  Grant, 
"  ten  thousand  are  more  than  I  mean  to  retreat  with," 
One  prominent,  elaborate  and  ambitious  account  of 
this  battle,  by  a  writer  who  has  been  complimented 
as  "the  Napier  of  the  War,"  is  visibly  framed  with  the 
intention  of  omitting  Grant  entirely  from  this  battle ; 
since  no  part  of  the  narrative  suggests  that  he  gave  a 
single  order,  or  shows  that  he  was  on  the  field.  But 
this  slander  by  omission  is  utterly  gratuitous.  General 
Sherman's  report  tells  how  Grant  "  was  early  on  the 
field,  and  visited  his  (Sherman's)  division  in  person 
about  ten  A.  M.,  when  the  battle  was  raging  fiercely;" 
and  again,  how  Grant,  who  had  been  on  the  field  and 
frequently  under  fire,  all  day  long,  returned  to  him  at 
5  P.  M.,  and  explained  the  situation  of  the  rest  of  the 
field.  Sherman  adds,  "he  agreed  that  the  enemy  had 
expended  the  force  of  his  attack,  and  we  estimated 
our  loss  and  approximated  our  then  strength.       *     * 

*  He  then  ordered  me  to  get  all  things  ready,  and 
at  daylight  the  next  day  to  assume  the  offensive.     * 

*  *  I  know  I  had  orders  from  General  Grant  to  as- 
sume the  offensive  before  I  knew  General  Buell  was 
on  the  west  side  of  the  Tennessee."  It  was  doubtless 
at  this  time  that  Grant  made  to  Sherman  the  remark 
already  quoted,  as  to  the  readiness  of  either  side,  at 
Donelson,  to  retreat. 

Another  witness,  who,  unlike  our  deceitful  "Napier 
of  the  Rebellion,"  was  on  the  field  of  Shiloh,  describes 
how  "  throughout  the  battle.  Grant  rode  to  and  fro 
on  the  front,  smoking  his  inevitable  cigar,  with  his  usual 
stolidity  and  good  fortune ;  horses  and  men  were  killed 
all  around  him,  but  he  did  not  receive  a  scratch." 


THE  BATTLE  OF  SHILOH.  135 

The  consequence  of  Shiloh  was,  the  withdrawal  of 
the  rebels  from  their  second  line  of  defence,  by  their 
evacuation  of  Corinth  on  the  30th  of  May,  seven 
weeks  afterwards,  the  disappointment  both  of  their 
great  plan  of  a  northern  invasion  and  of  their  secon- 
dary plan  of  holding  the  Memphis  and  Charleston 
Railroad  line,  and  the  opening  of  all  Tennessee,  and 
the  North  of  Mississippi  and  Alabama,  to  the  Union 
forces ;  the  opening  of  the  Mississippi  River  from 
Memphis  down  to  Yicksburg  ;  the  subsequent  move- 
ment which  resulted  in  the  battle  of  Murfreesboro 
and  the  securing  of  Chattanooga  on  the  east ;  and 
the  series  of  efforts  which  cuhninated  in  the  capture 
of  Vicksburg  on  the  west.  In  short,  this  battle  flung 
the  Rebellion,  in  the  Valley  of  the  Mississippi,  into  a 
defensive  posture,  out  of  which  it  never  escaped  dur- 
ing the  remainder  of  the  war. 

A  few  days  after  the  proclamation  which  gave  free- 
dom to  the  slaves.  General  Grant  expressed  his  con- 
currence in  it  after  his  sober  fashion,  by  a  dry  plirase 
in  a  general  order  on  the  subject  of  organizing  colored 
regiments.  "  It  is  expected,"  he  says,  "  that  all  com- 
manders will  especially  exert  themselves  in  carrying 
out  the  policy  of  the  administration,  not  only  in  or- 
ganizing colored  regiments,  and  rendering  them  effec- 
tive, but  also  in  removing  prejudice  against  them." 

The  taking  of  T'ort  Donelsoci  had  given  Grant  a 
reputation  as  a  prompt  and  vigorous  fighter,  and  a 
sensible  commander.  The  battle  of  Shiloh,  when  its 
extremely  important  results  came  to  be  understood, 
added  to  his  reputation  in  a  proportionate  degree. 
While  therefore  one  line  of  operations   was  decided 


136  ULYSSES   S.    GRANT. 

upon,  whicli  pointed  eastward  and  was  to  end  in  the  oc- 
cupation of  Chattanooga,  Rosecrans  being  placed  in 
command,  to  the  westward  and  southward,  a  second 
great  enterprise  was  aimed,  which  was  entrusted  to 
Grant ;  which  should  end  in  the  occupation  of  Vicks- 
burg,  and  should  thus  complete  the  task  which  the 
men  of  the  northwest  had  proposed  to  themselves  at 
the  beginning  of  the  war,  of  "  hewing  their  way  to 
the  sea." 

Vicksburg  and  Port  Hudson  were  now  the  only  re- 
maining two  of  that  series  of  positions,  most  of  them 
really  impregnable  from  the  river,  by  which  the  rebels 
had  throttled  the  great  artery  of  western  commerce. 

His  previous  career  naturally  enough  pointed  out 
Grant  for  the  command  of  the  Yicksburg  campaign  ; 
and  the  event  showed  that  his  absolute  inability  to  let 
go  where  he  had  once  taken  hold,  his  inevitable  con- 
tinuance in  hammering  at  his  object,  were  exactly  the 
qualities  needed. 

For  a  little  while,  General  Halleck  himself  came  and 
commanded  in  person  against  Corinth,  General  Grant 
being  second  in  command.  It  was  during  this  period 
that  both  the  two  occasions  occurred,  which  are  said 
to  have  been  the  only  ones  when  Grant  was  ever  known 
to  lose  his  temper.  His  steady  nature  and  calm  good 
humor  had  become  proverbial  among  his  fellows  even 
while  he  was  a  student ;  for  about  the  time  of  his  leav- 
ing West  Point,  the  cadets  said  of  him,  to  use  his 
father's  words,  that  the  only  difficulty  about  him  was, 
that  "if  he  ever  was  engaged  in  war,  he  was  too  good 
natured  to  be  kicked  into  a  fight."  The  two  occa- 
sions spoken  of  are  said  to  have  been  ;  one,  when  he 


THE    YICKSBURG    CAMPAIGN.  137 

discovered  a  soldier  defiling  the  water  of  a  clear 
spring;  and  the  other,  when  he  wished  to  "move  at 
once  upon  the  works  "  of  Beauregard  at  Corinth,  ten 
days  before  General  Halleck  was  ready ;  as  he  saw 
that  by  so  doing  the  whole  rebel  army  in  the  place 
could  be  taken.  Of  his  urgency  with  Ilalleck,  his 
father  Mr.  Jesse  R.  Grant,  says,  "  He  (Grant)  is  sure 
he  used  stronger  language  to  General  Halleck  than 
he  had  ever  used  before  to  any  person,  and  expected 
to  be  arrested  and  tried.  But  the  General  said  to  him, 
'  If  I  had  let  you  take  your  own  course,  you  would 
have  taken  the  rebel  army.  Hereafter  I  will  not  dic- 
tate to  you  about  the  management  of  an  army  ! ' " 

Halleck  now  left,  being  appointed  General-in-Chief; 
and  Grant  remained  in  command  of  the  Army  of  the 
Tennessee,  and  of  the  military  districts  of  Cairo,  West 
Tennessee  and  Mississippi.  The  rebels  knew  as  well 
as  he  that  his  face  was  set  steadfastly  towards  Vicks- 
burg ;  and  to  begin  with,  they  attacked  his  troops  at 
Corinth  and  luka  in  great  force  and  with  tremendous 
fury,  in  order  to  break  up  his  plans.  At  both  places 
they  were  however  defeated.  In  October,  the  rebel 
General  Pemberton  was  placed  in  command  in  North- 
ern Mississippi,  and  in  the  last  two  months  of  1862, 
took  place  Grant's  fii'st  attempt  against  Yicksburg. 
The  place  had  already  been  attacked  by  the  two  pow- 
erful fleets  of  Farragut  and  Davis,  during  seventy 
days,  from  the  preceding  May  18th  to  July  27th ;  but 
though  25,000  shot  and  shell  had  been  thrown  into 
it,  not  one  gun  had  been  dismounted,  and  only  seven 
men  were  killed  and  fifteen  wounded  ;  a  result  which 


138  ULYSSES   S.    GRANT. 

showed  plainly  enough  how  the  place  was  to  be  taken 
if  at  all. 

Grant's  movement  was  to  be  by  land,  southward 
from  his  post  at  Corinth,  directly  at  Pemberton ; 
while  Sherman  was  to  get  footing  if  possible  close  to 
Vicksburg.  The  loss  of  Grant's  main  depot  of  sup- 
plies at  Holly  Springs,  midway  in  his  progress,  broke 
down  his  part  of  the  plan,  and  Pemberton  then  rein- 
forcing Vicksburg,  repulsed  Sherman  and  broke  down 
the  rest  of  it. 

Grant  now  established  his  head-quarters  at  Memphis, 
January  10th,  1863,  and  moved  his  army  towards  his 
goal  by  water.  On  the  2d  of  February,  he  reached 
Young's  Point,  a  Httle  above  the  city ;  his  army  was 
already  there  and  at  Milliken's  Bend,  just  below. 

His  purpose  was  one  ;  to  get  his  army  across  to  the 
Vicksburg  side  and  thence  to  prosecute  his  attack. 
First  he  tried  a  canal  across  the  neck  of  the  river 
peninsula  opposite  Vicksburg.  Through  this,  if  he 
could  get  the  water  to  accept  it  as  a  new  bed,  he  could 
take  his  forces  below  the  city,  out  of  reach  of  its  guns, 
and  cross  over.  But  a  flood  burst  into  the  unfinished 
canal  and  drowned  out  the  plan.  Then  he  tried  to 
clear  out  a  longer  water  route  to  do  the  same  thing, 
through  a  string  of  bayous  and  rivers  back  in  the  Lou- 
isiana swamps.  A  fall  in  the  river  broke  up  this  plan, 
as  a  rise  had  done  that  before  it.  Then  he  tried  a 
longer  route  of  the  same  sort,  beginning  at  Lake 
Providence,  seventy -five  miles  north  of  Vicksburg,  but 
it  was  found  impracticable.  Then  resorting  to  the  east 
side  of  the  Mississippi,  he  sent  a  naval  expedition  to 
try  to  penetrate  Yazoo  Pass,  and  thence  through  the 


THE    VICKSBURG    CAMPAIGN.  139 

inconceivable  tangle  of  the  Yazoo  swamps  and  their 
rivers,  to  get  behind  the  outer  rebel  defences  north  of 
Vicksburg,  and  so  make  a  lodgment.  But  this  plan 
was  checkmated  by  the  hasty  erection  in  the  heart  of 
the  swamp  region,  at  the  junction  of  the  Tallahatchie 
and  Yazoo  Rivers,  of  a  powerful  fort,  which  the  fleet 
tried  in  vain  to  silence.  Then  he  sent  another  fleet  to 
try  another  part  of  the  same  monstrous  tangle,  by  way 
of  the  Big  Sunflower  River,  but  that  effort  miscarried 
much  as  the  preceding  one  did. 

The  obstinate  commander  had  now  tried  six  assaults 
upon  his  prey,  and  had  been  busily  working  at  his 
failures  for  nearly  four  months.  March  29th,  1863,  he 
set  his  forces  in  motion  for  the  seventh  and  successful 
effort.  This  was  by  what  he  had  in  fact  recognized 
from  the  beginning  as  the  best  line  of  operation — by 
the  south.  It  was  however  also  the  most  diflicult. 
As  one  of  the  historians  of  the  war  observes,  a  meas- 
ure of  the  difficulties  offered  is  given  by  the  fact  that 
General  W.  T.  Sherman  was  not  disposed  to  advise  it. 
The  same  writer  adds,  "It  can  only  be  said  that  there 
was  that  in  the  composition  of  General  Grant's  mind 
that  prompted  him  to  undertake  that  which  no  one 
else  would  have  adventured." 

Colonel  Grierson's  cavalry  force  was  now  launched 
down  from  Tennessee  to  go  tearing  through  the  whole 
interior  of  Mississippi,  and  thoroughly  frighten  all  its 
people,  while  he  should  break  up,  as  he  circuited  far 
around  Vicksburg,  as  many  as  possible  of  the  railroads, 
bridges,  and  other  means  of  communication,  leading 
from  the  city  back  into  the  country,  or  from  one  part 
of  the  State, to  another.     Grant's  own  troops  moved 


140  ULYSSES    S.    GRANT. 

down  tlie  river  a  total  distance  of  seventy-five  miles. 
The  fleet  and  transports  ran  the  batteries  and  ferried 
the  army  across  at  Bruinsbnrg ;  Grant  moved  at  once 
three  miles  inland,  and  May  1st,  beat  Gen.  Bowen  at 
Port  Gibson.  Then  he  moved  eastward,  drove  John- 
ston out  of  Jackson,  an  important  center  for  railroad 
lines,  and  broke  up  all  the  communications  in  the 
neighborhood ;  then  turning  short  about,  he  approach- 
ed Vicksburg  by  forced  marches;  on  May  10th  met 
Pemberton  at  Champion  Hills  and  defeated  him ;  fol- 
lowed him  sharply  up,  forced  the  passage  of  the  Big 
Black,  drove  Pemberton  into  the  city,  and  on  May 
16th  had  formed  his  lines  of  attack.  After  a  vigorous 
siege,  whose  progress  attracted  the  attention  of  the 
whole  civilized  world,  the  place  surrendered  with 
27,000  men,  on  July  4th,  1863.  The  whole  number 
of  prisoners  made  since  crossing  the  Mississippi  was 
37,000.  This  great  achievement  freed  the  Mississippi, 
cut  the  rebellion  in  two,  and  rendered  it  out  of  the 
question  for  the  rebels  to  hold  the  Mississippi  Valley. 
The  taking  of  Vicksburg  was  remarkable,  not  so 
much  as  a  successful  engineering  attack  against  earth- 
works, as  it  was  when  considered  as  the  culmination 
of  a  well  planned  campaign.  The  place  was  in  fact 
taken  a  good  ways  away  from  it.  Grierson's  wide  de- 
struction of  the  railroads  and  bridges,  and  the  far 
wider  fright  which  he  spread  among  the  rebels,  were 
part  of  the  fatal  preliminaries  which  were  the  most 
decisive  parts  of  the  attack.  Such  were  also  the  se- 
ries of  battles  which  so  relentlessly  pounded  Pember- 
ton backwards  into  the  trap  where  he  was  finally 
caged ;  particularly  the  expulsion  of  the  rebel  forces 


THE    YICKSBURG    CAMPAIGN.  141 

from  Jackson,  just  before  the  siege.  All  these  opera- 
tions gradually  fixed  Pemberton  where  he  could  not 
get  out,  and  where  his  friends  could  not  help  him  out ; 
and  so  he  waited  until  he  had  no  more  provisions,  and 
then  gave  up.  There  seems  no  reason  for  believing 
that  the  assault  which  Grant  had  arranged  to  give  on 
the  6th,  if  the  surrender  had  not  been  made  on  the 
4th,  would  have  been  more  successful  than  either  of 
the  previous  assaults;  the  earthworks  of  Vicksburg 
were  skillfully  and  strongly  built,  and  were  much  the 
stronger  because  they  stood  on  ground  itself  naturally 
very  strong.  The  great  feature  of  the  transaction  was 
therefore  the  broad  and  far-seeing  wisdom  of  a  gene- 
ral who  can  organize  campaigns,  rather  than  the  mere 
ability  of  a  colonel  to  make  a  furious  assault  at  the 
head  of  his  regiment.  That  this  was  the  nature  of 
the  campaign,  appears  from  the  history  of  the  ])re- 
liminary  part  of  it;  and  so  it  does,  from  Grant's 
own  dispatch  to  Sherman,  on  hearing  that  Johnston 
was  doing  his  best  to  get  together  an  army  to  relieve 
the  place.  "They  seem,"  wrote  Grant,  "to  put  a 
great  deal  of  faith  in  the  Lord  and  Joe  Johnston, 
but  you  must  whip  Johnston  at  least  fifteen  miles  from 
here."     That  battle  never  happened. 

It  is  said  that  during  the  dreary  days  of  the  siege 
of  Vicksburg,  a  knot  of  men  collected  in  a  druggist's 
shop  in  Cincinnati,  were  discussing  the  probabilities 
of  his  success  in  taking  Vicksburg.  An  aged  coun- 
tryman, who  had  been  a  silent  listener,  was  at  last  ap- 
pealed to  for  his  opinion. 

"I  rather  think  he'll  do  it,"  said  the  stranger,  in  a 

tone  of  certainty. 
10 


142  ULYSSES    S.    GRANT. 

"What  makes  you  think  so?"  said  the  company. 

"Well,  I  don't  know;  but  our  Ulysses  always  did 
do  whatever  he  said  he  would.  You  see  Ulysses  is 
my  boy,"  added  the  old  man;  and  the  event  justified 
his  confidence. 

Never  was  an  enterprise  hedged  in  with  difficulties 
more  gigantic ;  but  against  these  Grant  placed  the 
silent,  inflexible  force  of  a  will  which  no  length  of 
time  could  weary,  no  obstacles  discourage,  and  the 
combinations  of  a  brain  which  seemed  equally  capable 
of  attending  to  the  vastest  plans  and  the  most  trivial 
minutiae. 

We  can  all  remember  that  thrill  of  joy  and  thank- 
fulness which  vibrated  through  the  country  when  the 
telegraph  flashed  through  it  the  news  of  this  victory. 
It  was  a  double  triumph  for  the  nation.  Not  only 
was  Vicksburg  taken,  but  the  General  and  commander 
that  the  nation  had  long  been  looking  for  was  at  last 
made  manifest. 

In  vain  did  envy  and  jealousy  at  this  point  intrigue 
against  him,  and  endeavor  to  fill  the  ear  of  the  Presi- 
dent with  suspicions.  "I  assure  you  he  is  a  hard 
drinker,"  said  one  of  these  detractors.  The  "slow, 
wise  smile  "  that  we  so  well  remember,  rose  over  that 
rugged  face  as  Lincoln  made  answer : 

"I  wish  you  would  tell  me  exactly  ivhat  he  drinks. 
I  should  like  to  send  some  of  the  same  brand  to  all 
my  other  Generals." 

No ;  there  was  no  deceiving  Lincoln.  He  knew  a 
man  when  he  saw  him,  and  was  ready  to  put  all  power 
in  hands  that  he  saw  were  strong  enough  to  use  it. 


HOW    GRAXT    MADE    A    SPEECH.  143 

General  Grant's  commission  as  major-general  in  tlie 
regular  army  was  dated  July  4,  18G3,  the  day  of  the 
occupation  of  Vicksburg.  In  the  succeeding  October 
he  was  placed  in  command  of  the  great  "Military  Di- 
vision of  the  Mississippi,"  consisting  of  the  three  "  De- 
partments" of  the  Ohio,  the  Cumberland,  and  the 
Tennessee,  and  including  the  command  of  four  strong 
armies;  his  own,  Hooker's,  and  those  of  the  Cumber- 
land and  the  Ohio. 

Grant's  next  victory  was  that  of  Chattanooga,  Nov. 
25,  1863,  which  substantially  repaired  the  ill  effects  of 
the  defeat  of  Rosecrans  at  Chickamauga,  and  assured  the 
possession  of  the  mountain  citadel  from  which  in  the 
next  spring  Sherman  sallied  on  his  way  to  Atlanta. 

A  very  thorough  eflbrt  to  extract  a  speech  from 
Grant  was  made  at  St.  Louis,  January  20,  18G4,  after 
the  victory  of  Chattanooga.  There  was  a  public  din- 
ner in  his  honor.  When  the  regular  toast  to  "our 
distinguished  guest"  was  offered  and  drank,  and  the 
band  had  capped  the  compliment  with  "Hail  to  the 
Chief,"  the  guest  would,  on  political  principles  have 
talked  for  at  least  half  an  hour.  Grant  got  up  and 
said:  "Gentlemen — in  response  it  will  be  impossible 
for  me  to  do  more  than  to  thank  you."  In  the  eve- 
nin*?  there  was  a  serenade,  and  a  jrreat  crowd  to  hear 
it.  When  Grant  came  out  on  the  balcony,  everybody 
shouted  "Speech,  speech!"  and  then  was  the  time  for 
another  able  political  manifesto,  say  of  an  hour  long. 
The  General  took  off  his  hat.  Evervbody  was  per- 
fectly still.  At  last  a  speech  from  the  Silent  General ! 
But  that  commander  had  now  "found  a  can't  in  his 
dictionary."     "Gentlemen,"  he  said,  "I  thank  you  for 


144  ULYSSES    S.    GRAXT. 

this  honor.  I  cannot  make  a  speech.  It  is  something 
I  have  never  done,  and  never  intend  to  do,  and  I  beg 
you  will  excuse  me."  So  he  put  on  his  hat,  took  out 
a  cigar,  lit  it,  smoked,  and  looked  at  the  rockets.  The 
crowd  kept  bawling  out,  "Speech,  speech,  speech!" 
A  foolish  local  politician  who  had  been  let  into  the 
balcony,  offered  the  General  a  piece  of  worn-out  clap- 
trap to  fling  to  the  crowd.  "Tell  them,"  said  he, 
"that  you  can  fight  for  them,  but  can't  talk  to  them." 
The  General  quietly  intimated  that  he  should  leave 
such  things  for  others  to  say.  Still  they  bawled 
"Speech  !  "  and  once  more  the  "very  obstinate  man," 
taking  his  cigar  from  his  lips,  leaned  over  the  railing 
and  puffed  forth  the  smoke  as  if  to  speak.  "  Now, 
then,"  said  the  excited  crowd,  and  they  were  all  still. 
"Gentlemen,"  said  Grant,  "making  speeches  is  not 
my  business.  I  never  did  it  in  my  life,  and  I  never 
will.  I  thank  you,  however,  for  your  attendance 
here." 

On  March  10th,  1864,  Grant  was  appointed  Lieu- 
tenant General,  and  placed  in  command  of  all  the  ar- 
mies of  the  United  States.  The  first  law  passed  at 
that  winter's  session  had  been  a  joint  resolution  thank- 
ing Grant  and  the  officers  and  men  that  had  fought 
under  him,  and  providing  for  an  honorary  medal  to 
be  presented  to  him  by  the  United  States,  in  testimo- 
ny thereof 

The  Union  armies,  as  Grant  himself  had  already 
remarked,  in  his  dry  way,  had  hitherto  "acted  inde- 
pendently, and  without  concert,  like  a  baulky  team, 
no  two  pulling  together." 


THE  richmo^;d  campaign.  145 

Henceforward,  in  his  single  strong  hand,  those  ar- 
mies worked  together.  The  rebel  leaders  could  no 
longer  beat  a  Union  army  at  one  end  of  the  line  of 
hostilities  by  massing  all  their  troops  upon  it,  and  then 
whirl  them  away  to  the  other  end  and  beat  another. 
As  Grant  was  engaged  in  crossing  the  Rapidan  at  the 
opening  of  the  final  Richmond  campaign,  he  sat  down 
on  a  log  by  the  roadside  and  wrote  a  few  words  which 
were  telegraphed  from  Washington.  They  let  Sher- 
man loose  to  co-operate  in  the  South  with  the  Army 
of  the  Potomac  in  the  north — and  the  Rebellion  was 
ground  to  dust  between  the  two. 

In  this  final  movement,  the  first  act  was  the  battle 
of  the  Wilderness.  There  is  a  story  that  upon  the 
next  morning  after  the  first  day's  struggling  in  those 
tangled  and  all  but  impassable  woods,  Lee  and  his  of- 
ficers came  out  as  aforetime,  to  see  the  Union  forces 
going  back  again  over  the  river ;  and  that  when  he  saw, 
instead,  signs  of  their  resuming  the  attack,  he  remarked 
to  his  companions,  "  They  have  a  general  now.  It  is 
all  up  with  us!"  The  story  may  not  be  true  ;  but  its 
facts  were.  It  was  after  six  days  of  battle  that  Grant 
sent  to  Washington  the  dispatch  which  ended  with  the 
grim  remark,  "  I  propose  to  fight  it  out  on  this  line  if 
it  takes  all  summer."  Spottsylvania  followed,  and 
Cold  Harbor ;  the  investment  of  Petersburg,  and  that 
long  series  of  assaults,  forays,  entrenchments  and  bat- 
tles which  ended  with  the  surrender  of  Lee  and  the 
explosion  of  the  Rebellion. 

In  the  early  days  of  the  campaign,  Mrs.  Grant  gave 
an  opinion  about  Richmond,  which  was  as  well  found- 
ed as  that  of  the  GeneraFs  father,  about  Yicksburg. 


146  ULYSSES   S.    GRANT. 

Somebody  was  so  good  as  to  express  to  her  a  hope 
that  her  husband  would  take  Richmond.  Mrs.  Grant 
observed,  with  a  dry  simplicity  of  phrase  that  sounded 
as  if  she  had  gone  to  school  to  her  husband  as  well  as 
married  him ;  "  Well,  I  don't  know.  I  think  he  may. 
Mr.  Grant  always  was  a  very  obstinate  man  f  " 

From  the  time  of  Grant's  first  appointment,  he  has 
gone  on  steadily,  firmly,  and  without  bluster  or  parade, 
doing  the  impossible,  and  demonstrating  his  early  say- 
ing, that  there  was  no  can't  in  his  dictionary.  In 
quiet  reticence  and  persevering  patience  he  resembles 
the  Duke  of  Wellington  more  than  any  of  the  great 
military  leaders.  Like  Wellington  and  George  Wash- 
ington, he  seems  possessed  of  a  buoyancy  of  capacity 
which  always  and  steadily  rises  to  the  height  of  any 
emergency. 

How  modestly  and  quietly  he  received  promotion  ; 
how  earnestly  and  wisely  he  set  to  work,  when  all  the 
reins  of  power  were  in  his  hands,  to  organize  that  last 
splendid  campaign  that  issued  in  the  taking  of  Rich- 
mond and  the  surrender  of  Lee,  the  people  do  not 
need  to  be  told.  It  will  be  had  in  everlasting  remem- 
brance. 

Never  had  man  more  efficient  Generals  to  second 
him.  Grant's  marshals  were  not  inferior  to  Napoleon's, 
and  the  unenvying,  patriotic  ability  with  which  he  and 
they  worked  together  is  not  the  least  noticeable  feat- 
ure in  the  campaign  whose  glory  they  share  with  him. 

The  war  closed  leaving  General  Grant,  who  en- 
tered it  an  obscure  trader,  in  a  position  perhaps  as 
noticeable  and  brilliant  as  any  in  the  civilized  world. 
He  stands  in  the  front  rank  among  the  leaders  of  hu- 


fflS    HONESTY.  147 

man  society,  and  in  our  American  affairs,  still  critical, 
lie  shows  a  judgment,  and  a  prudence,  and  a  temper- 
ate wisdom  which  seem  to  point  him  out  as  no  less 
fit  to  rule  in  peace  than  in  war. 

General  Grant  has  many  qualities  which  fit  him- to 
be  a  ruler  of  men.  Among  them  are  some  plain  and 
common-place  virtues.  Such  is  his  unflinching  adher- 
ence to  what  he  thinks  is  right.  Such  is  his  uncon- 
ditional public  and  private  honesty.  This  was  well 
exemplified  in  the  solicitous  care  with  which  he  kept 
the  cotton  business  outside  of  his  command  in  the 
West,  as  long  as  possible,  from  a  well  founded  dis- 
like of  its  immense  corrupting  power. 

When  at  last  he  had  to  consent  to  allow  the  prog- 
ress of  trade  into  the  territory  taken  from  the  rebels, 
he  specified  that,  at  least,  it  should  be  kept  in  the 
hands  of  honest  and  trusty  and  undoubted  Unionists. 
He  was  then  asked  to  name  such  men.  He  replied, 
"  I  will  do  no  such  thing.  If  I  did,  it  would  appear 
in  less  than  a  week  that  I  was  a  partner  of  every  one 
of  the  persons  trading  under  my  authority." 

Such  another  virtue  is,  that  scrupulous  official  econ- 
omy by  which  General  Grant  has  already  saved  our 
over-taxed  country  five  million  dollars  a  year,  by  cut- 
ting down  expenses  in  the  War  Department. 

He  also  possesses  other  very  noticeable  qualifications 
of  a  more  special  sort,  and  so  much  rarer  among  pub- 
lic men,  that  they  must  be  named  even  in  the  shortest 
inventory  of  General  Grant's  character.  Two  of  these 
are,  the  broadest  and  most  generous  justice  in  attribut- 
ing the  credit  of  doing  well  where  it  belongs,  and 
remarkable  wisdom  in  judging  and  selecting  men.     Of 


148  ULYSSES   S,    GRA^T. 

the  former  quality,  Ms  letter  to  Sherman  at  the  time 
of  his  appointment  as  Lieutenant- General  is  a  good  in- 
stance. That  letter,  exceedingly  honorable  evidence 
of  simplicity  and  justice  in  the  writer,  and  of  merit  in 
the  recipient,  was  as  follows : 

"  Dear  Sherman  : — The  bill  reviving  the  grade  of 
Lieutenant-General  in  the  army  has  become  a  law,  and 
my  name  has  been  sent  to  the  Senate  for  the  place. 
I  now  receive  orders  to  report  to  Washington  immedi- 
ately in  person,  which  indicates  a  confirmation,  or  a 
likelihood  of  confirmation. 

I  start  in  the  morning  to  comply  with  the  order. 

Whilst  I  have  been  eminently  successful  in  this  war, 
'  in  at  least  gaining  the  confidence  of  the  public,  no  one 
feels  more  than  I  how  much  of  this  success  is  due  to 
the  energy  and  skill,  and  the  harmonious  putting  forth 
of  that  energ}^  and  skill,  of  those  whom  it  has  been  my 
good  fortune  to  have  occupying  subordinate  positions 
under  me. 

There  are  many  officers  to  whom  these  remarks  are 
applicable  to  a  greater  or  less  degree,  proportionate 
to  their  ability  as  soldiers;  but  what  I  want  is  to  ex- 
press my  thanks  to  you  and  McPherson,  as  the  men  to 
whom,  above  all  others,  I  feel  indebted  for  whatever 
I  have  had  of  success. 

How  far  your  advice  and  assistance  have  been  of 
help  to  me  you  know.  How  far  your  execution  of 
whatever  has  been  given  you  to  do  entitles  you  to  the 
1-eward  I  am  receiving,  you  cannot  know  as  well  as  I. 

I  feel  all  the  gratitude  this  letter  would  express, 
giving  it  the  most  flattering  construction. 


POWER    OF    HOLDING    HIS    TONGUE.  149 

The  word  you  I  use  in  the  plural,  intending  it  for 
McPherson  also.  I  should  write  to  him,  and  will  some 
day ;  but,  starting  in  the  morning,  I  do  not  know  that 
I  will  find  time  just  now. 

Your  friend, 

U.   S.  Gr.ln'T,  Major-General." 

Of  his  wisdom  in  selecting  and  trusting  assistants 
and  subordinates,  the  list  of  their  names  is  a  very  suf- 
ficient evidence.  The  proved  possession  of  this  one 
faculty  goes  very  far  to  prove  that  its  possessor  is  com- 
petent to  govern ;  and  when  a  strong  will  and  stain- 
less public  and  private  morals  are  added,  the  presump- 
tion grows  very  much  stronger. 

A  gigantic  power  of  minding  his  own  business  and 
holding  his  tongue  is  even  a  greater  wonder  in  Gene- 
ral Grant  than  his  being  honest  and  just.  An  instance 
of  his  successful  resistance  to  the  most  violent  pump- 
ing of  him  for  a  speech,  has  been  given ;  and  other 
such  brilliant  "flashes  of  silence,"  as  Sydney  Smith 
would  have  called  them,  illuminate  his  whole  career 
during  and  since  the  war.  He  has  been  recently  sub- 
jected to  a  very  similar  and  more  vexatious  series  of 
similar  endeavors  by  the  politicians  who  have  been 
buzzing  about  him  as  he  has  become  more  and  more 
plainly  needed  as  next  President.  These  noxious 
creatures  have  tried  every  conceivable  trick  to  make 
him  say  something  to  show  him  a  member  of  their 
party — for  mere  patriotism  and  uprightness  will  not 
serve  these  bigoted  sectarians. 

Thus  fiir  the  silent  soldier  has  defied  them  all.     In 
January,  1:864,  somebody  said  something  to  him  about 


150  ULYSSES    S.    GRANT. 

the  Presidency.  He  put  the  subject  by,  saying,  "Let 
us  first  settle  the  war,  and  it  will  be  time  enough  then 
to  talk  upon  that  subject."  A  little  while  afterwards 
some  one  referred  to  a  certain  resolute  effort  to  make 
him  talked  of  as  a  candidate,  and  he  then  laid  down 
his  famous  Side- walk  Platform :  "When  this  war  is 
over,"  said  he,  "I  intend  to  run  for  mayor  of  Galena, 
and  if  elected  I  intend  to  have  the  sidewalk  fixed  up 
between  my  house  and  the  depot."  Properly  under- 
stood, this  is  a  very  quiet  but  very  sarcastic  valuation 
of  office-seeking. 

Not  long  ago.  Senator  Wade  complained  to  a  news- 
paper reporter  who  immediately  printed  the  story, 
that  he  "had  often  tried  to  find  out  whether  Grant 
was  for  Congress  or  Johnson,  or  what  the  devil  he  was 
for,  but  never  could  get  anything  out  of  him,  for  as 
quick  as  he'd  talk  politics  Grant  would  talk  horse,  and 
he  could  talk  horse  by  the  hour."  This  was  a  horrible 
irritation  to  the  old  politician,  who  could  not  be  con- 
tent to  judge  the  man  by  his  acts.  This  was  a  great 
error.  One  would  imagine  that  of  all  men  a  veteran 
politician  would  have  been  first  to  recognize  the  utter 
emptiness  of  words  and  professions.  If  Gen.  Grant's 
views  are  not  consistent  with  the  unbroken  record  of 
his  whole  life  of  action,  he  is  the  most  gigantic  hypo- 
crite the  world  ever  saw,  and  in  that  event  it  is  cer- 
tainly useless  to  try  to  make  him  expose  himself  now. 
If  his  views  are  in  harmony  with  his  acts,  it  is  assured- 
ly useless  to  state  them,  and  as  a  respectable  citizen 
and  a  man  of  dignified  self-respect,  he  may  justly  be 
offended  at  such  superfluous  attempts  to  coax  him  to 
make  affidavits  to  his  own  character. 


QUALIFICATIONS   AS    A   RULER.  151 

A  Texas  political  editor,  in  Xovember,  18G7,  while 
Gen.  Grant  was  acting  Secretary  of  War,  pushed  his 
way  into  the  General's  private  office,  and  "had  an  in- 
terview "  with  him.  He  went  right  to  work  with  his 
feelers,  as  is  the  method  of  this  species  of  insect,  and 
told  Grant  that  "the  people  of  his  section  wanted  the 
General  for  President."  Grant  turned  the  subject. 
The  editor,  being  one  of  that  sort  of  "gentlemen" 
who  see  no  connection  between  politics  and  politeness, 
turned  the  subject  promptly  back  again,  saying, 
"  General,  we  want  to  run  you  for  President,  and  I  want 
to  know  what  I  can  say  when  I  return  home."  Grant 
answered  with  peremptory  decision,  "  Say  nothing,  sir ; 
I  want  nothing  said." 

No  other  but  a  man  of  his  peculiar  character  and 
power  could  have  borne  the  ordeal  of  forming  a  part 
of  the  President's  suite  in  his  late  unpopular  progress 
through  the  Northern  States.  The  discretion,  delicacy 
and  wisdom  with  which  he  sustained  himself,  show  a 
character  capable  of  the  most  skillful  adaptations. 
We  are  indebted  to  his  wise  presence  and  temperate 
advice  in  averting  the  threatened  danger  of  civil  war 
in  Maryland :  for,  like  all  wise  and  great  Generals, 
Grant  is  duly  impressed  with  the  horrors  of  war,  and 
will  be  always  for  every  possible  means  of  averting 
such  an  evil. 

In  all  these  respects  Grant  has  shown  a  wise  states- 
manship, which  points  him  out  to  the  country  as  the 
fittest  one  to  replace  to  it  what  was  lost  in  the  sudden 
death  of  Lincoln.  Should  an  appeal  be  made  to  the 
people,  we  think  there  is  no  name  that  would  meet  a 
more  overwhelming  and  enthusiastic  response. 


CHAPTER  III. 

WILLIAM   LLOYD   GARRISON. 

Mr.  Garrison's  Birth  and  Parents — His  Mother — Her  Conversion — His  Boyhood 
— Apprenticed  to  a  Printer — First  Anti-Slavery  Address — Advice  to  Dr. 
Beecher — Benjamin  Lundy — Garrison  goes  to  Baltimore — First  Battle  with 
Slavery — In  Jail — First  number  of  the  Liberator.— Threats  and  Rage  from  the 
South — The  American  Anti-Slavery  Society — First  Visit  to  England — The 
Era  of  Mob  Violence — The  Respectable  Boston  Mob — Mr.  Garrison's  account 
— Again  in  Jail — The  Massachusetts  Legislature  Uncivil  to  the  Abolitionists — 
Logical  Vigor  of  the  Slaveholders — Garrison's  Disunionism — Denounces  the 
Church — Liberality  of  the  Liberator — The  Southerners'  own  Testimony — Mr. 
Gan-ison's  Bland  Manners — His  Steady  Nerves — His  use  of  Language — Things 
by  their  Right  Names — Abolitionist  "  Hard  Language  ;"  Gan-ison's  Argument 
on  it — Protest  for  Woman's  Rights — The  triumph  of  his  Cau^^e — "  The  Liber- 
ator "  Discontinued— Second  Visit  to  England — Letter  to  Mrs.  Stowe. 

We  have  written  the  name  of  a  man  who  has  had 
a  more  marked  influence  on  our  late  national  history 
than  any  other  person  who  could  be  mentioned.  No 
man  has  been  more  positively  active  in  bringing  on 
that  great  moral  and  political  agitation  whose  issues 
have  been  in  those  recent  scenes  and  events  which 
no  American  can  ever  forget. 

When  we  remember  that  it  was  begun  by  one  man, 
singlehanded,  alone,  unfriended,  despised  and  poor,  we 
must  feel  in  advance  that  such  a  man  came  of  no  com- 
mon stock,  and  possessed  no  common  elements  of  char- 
acter. We  are  interested  to  inquire  after  the  parent- 
age and  the  early  forming  causes  which  haye  produced 
such  results.  In  Mr.  Garrison's  case  he  frankly  as- 
cribes all  that  he  is,  or  has  ever  been  or  done,  to  the 
training,  example  and  influence  of  a  mother  whose 

154 


//  ' >^ZXtryc6      ^  Cty^t^i^-t^-crH,  , 


garrison's  mother.  155 

early  history  and  life-long  character  were  of  uncom- 
mon interest. 

She  was  born  of  English  stock,  in  the  province  of 
New  Brunswick,  and  grew  up  in  that  lethargic  state  of 
society  which  has  received  not  an  impulse  or  a  new 
idea  since  the  time  of  Queen  Anne.  Her  parents  at- 
tended the  Established  Church,  drank  the  king's  health 
on  all  proper  occasions,  and  observed  the  gradual 
growing  up  of  a  beautiful  and  spirited  daughter  with 
tranquil  satisfaction. 

At  the  age  of  eighteen  this  young  girl,  with  a  party 
of  gay  companions,  went  from  curiosity  to  attend  the 
religious  services  of  some  itinerating  Baptists,  who 
were  startling  the  dead  echoes  of  that  region  by  a 
style  of  preaching,  praying  and  exhorting,  such  as 
never  had  been  heard  there  before.  They  were  com- 
monly called  Ranters,  and  the  young  people  promised 
themselves  no  small  amusement  from  the  spectacle  of 
their  extravagances. 

But  the  beautiful  and  gay  girl  carried  unknown  and 
dormant  in  her  own  nature,  the  elements  of  an  earnest 
and  lofty  religious  character,  which  no  touch  of  the 
droning  services  of  a  dead  church  had  ever  yet  stirred 
to  consciousness — and  the  wild  sinsrino^,  the  fervent  ex- 
hortatious,  the  vivid  and  real  emotions  which  were  ex- 
hibited in  this  meeting,  fired  the  electric  train  and 
roused  the  fervor  of  her  own  nature.  Life,  death, 
eternity,  all  became  vivid  and  real  to  her,  and  the 
command  to  come  out  from  a  vain  world  and  be  se2D- 
arate ;  to  confess  Christ  openly  before  men,  seemed  to 
her  to  have  a  living  and  present  power. 


156  WILLIAM    LLOYD    GARRISON. 

* 

It  is  very  commonly  the  case  that  minds  for  the  first 
time  awakened  to  the  real  power  of  religion,  feel  that 
the  only  true  faith  is  to  be  found  under  the  forms  and 
ideas  which  have  so  moved  them,  and  that  to  confess 
Christ  means  a  visible  union  with  any  particular  body 
of  Christians  who  have  made  real  to  them  the  Christian 
idea.  Such  was  the  call  felt  by  this  young  girl  to  join 
herself  with  this  despised  body  ot  Christians. 

Her  parents  were  greatly  shocked  and  annoyed 
when  they  found  that  instead  of  ridiculing  the  Ranters, 
she  was  going  again  and  again  to  their  services,  with 
an  undissembled  earnestness:  and  when  finally  she 
announced  to  them  her  purpose  to  unite  herself  to 
them  in  the  public  ordinance  of  baptism,  their  indig- 
nation knew  no  bounds,  and  they  threatened  her  that 
if  she  did  she  should  never  enter  their  doors  again,  or 
be  to  them  more  than  a  stranger. 

Then  was  the  crisis  in  which  the  woman  stood  be- 
tween two  worlds — two  kinds  of  life — on  one  side,  the 
most  earnest  and  whole-hearted  excitement  of  the 
higher  moral  feelings,  on  the  other  side,  the  material 
good  things  of  this  world. 

The  mother  of  Lloyd  Garrison  hesitated  not  a  mo- 
ment between  the  convictions  of  her  conscience  and  a 
worldly  good.  Like  the  primitive  Christians,  she 
went  down  into  the  waters  of  baptism  feeling  that  she 
was  leaving  father,  mother,  and  home,  and  casting 
herself  on  God  alone. 

Her  parents,  with  true  John  Bull  obstinacy,  made 
good  their  word,  and  shut  their  doors  upon  her ;  but 
an  uncle,  struck  perhaps  with  her  courage  and  con- 
stancy, opened  to  her  an  asylum  where  she  remained 


HIS   BOYHOOD.  157 

till  her  marriage.  In  later  years  her  parents  became 
reconciled  to  her. 

The  religious  life  thus  begun  was  carried  on  with 
a  marked  and  triumphant  fullness.  She  was  a  woman 
of  enthusiastic  convictions,  of  strong  mind,  and  of 
great  natural  eloquence,  and  during  the  infancy  and 
childhood  of  William  Lloyd  he  was  often  with  her  in 
the  prayer-meetings,  which  were  vivified  by  the  elec- 
tric eloquence  of  her  prayers  and  exhortations — for 
the  Baptist  as  well  as  Methodist  denominations,  al- 
lowed to  women  as  well  as  men,  a  Christian  equality 
in  the  use  of  the  gifts  of  instruction. 

The  father  of  Garrison,  a  man  possessed  of  some 
genius  and  many  fascinating  and  interesting  traits,  was 
one  of  the  victims  of  intemperance  in  those  days  when 
so  many  families  were  saddened  by  its  blight ;  and  at 
quite  an  early  age  Mrs.  Garrison  was  left  with  a  family 
of  helpless  little  ones,  with  no  other  heritage  but  her 
faith  in  God,  and  her  own  undaunted  and  courageous 
spirit.  She  was  obliged  to  put  her  boys  out  at  a  very 
tender  age,  to  struggle  for  themselves,  while  she  fol- 
lowed the  laborious  profession  of  a  sick  nurse. 

William  Lloyd,  her  second  son,  was  by  tempera- 
ment fitted  to  be  impressed  by  a  woman  like  his  moth- 
er. He  had  listened  to  the  burning  recital  of  her  ex- 
perience, and  his  heart,  even  in  early  infancy,  learned 
to  thrill  in  sympathy  with  the  solemn  grandeur  of  re- 
lio-ious  devotion  and  absolute  self-sacrifice.  All  his 
mother's  religious  ideas  became  his  own  ;  and  even  as 
a  boy  he  was  a  strict  and  well  versed  Baptist,  having 
at  his  tongue's  end  every  argument  which  supported 


158  WILLIAM    LLOYD    GARRISON. 

the  peculiar  faith  which  his  mother's  enthusiasm  had 
taught  him  to  regard  as  the  only  true  one. 

The  necessities  of  life,  however,  early  separated  him 
from  her  society.  When  only  nine  years  of  age  he  was 
placed  in  the  shop  of  a  shoe-maker  to  learn  the  trade, 
but  the  confinement  and  employment  were  unfavora- 
ble to  his  health  and  uncongenial  to  his  feelings.  He 
was  longing  for  educational  advantages,  and  bent  on 
a  career  in  the  world  of  ideas. 

He  was  taken  from  this  situation  and  sent  to  school 
at  Newburyport,  paying  for  his  board  and  schooling 
by  sawing  wood,  doing  errands,  and  performing  other 
labors  out  of  school  hours. 

After  some  unsuccessful  experiments  at  different  sit- 
uations, he  found  at  last  a  congenial  sphere  in  being 
apprenticed  as  a  printer  to  Ephraim  W.  Allen,  editor 
of  the  Newburyport  Gazette. 

His  bent  had  always  been  for  letters,  and  he  engaged 
in  this  occupation  with  enthusiasm,  and  that  minute  and 
careful  faithfulness  and  accuracy  in  regard  to  the 
smallest  minutise  which  formed  a  very  marked  trait  in 
his  character.  In  all  that  relates  to  the  expression  of 
ideas  by  the  written  or  printed  signs  of  language,  Gar- 
rison had  a  natural  aptitude,  and  attained  to  a  pecu- 
liar perfection. 

His  handwriting  was,  and  is,  even  at  this  time  of 
life,  as  perfect  in  point  of  legibility,  neatness,  and  ex- 
act finish,  as  if  he  had  been  by  profession  a  writing- 
master.  ^ 

Even  in  the  days  when  the  Liberator  was  the  most 
despised  and  rejected  of  all  papers,  the  very  lowest  in 
the  scale  of  genteel  appreciation,  its  clear  and  elegant 


FIRST    LITERARY    EFFORTS.  159 

tjpograpliy,  and  the  grace  and  completeness  of  its  me- 
chanical disposition,  won  for  it  admiration.  He  un- 
derstood to  a  nicety  that  art  which  solicits  the  eye  of 
a  reader,  and  makes  a  printed  sheet  look  attractive. 

It  was  not  long  before  his  fervid  mind  began  to 
reach  beyond  the  mechanical  setting  of  his  types,  to 
the  intellectual  and  moral  purposes  to  be  accomplished 
through  them. 

Garrison  was  one  of  the  ordained  priests  of  nature, 
one  of  the  order  of  natural  prophets  who  feel  them- 
selves to  have  a  message  to  society,  which  they  must 
and  will  deliver. 

He  began  sending  anonymous  articles  to  the  paper 
on  which  he  was  employed,  which  were  well  received, 
and  which,  consequently,  he  had  more  than  once  the 
pleasure  of  setting  up  in  type. 

Encouraged  by  their  favorable  reception,  he  gradu- 
ally began  to  offer  articles  to  other  journals.  A  series 
of  articles  for  the  Salem  Gazette^  under  the  signature 
"Aristides,"  attracted  particular  attention,  and  were 
commended  by  Robert  Walsh  in  the  Philadelphia 
National  Gazette^  who  attributed  them  to  Timothy 
Pickering  ;  a  compliment  of  no  small  significance  to  a 
young  mechanic. 

In  1824,  his  employer,  Mr.  Allen,  was  obliged  for  a 
long  time  to  be  absent  from  the  charge  of  his  paper, 
when  Mr.  Garrison  acted  as  editor  of  the  Newburyport 
Herald^  of  which  he  had  been  previously  printer. 

In  1826  he  became  proprietor  and  editor  of  a  paper 
called  the  Free  Press^  in  his  native  town.  He  toiled 
at  it  with  unceasing  industry,  and  that  patient  cheer- 
fulness of  enthusiasm  which  made  every  labor  light. 


160  WILLIAM   LLOYD    GARRISON. 

He  printed  Ms  own  editorials,  witJwut  previously  writ- 
ing them^  a  fact  which  more  than  anything  else  shows 
how  completely  he  had  mastered  the  mechanical  part 
of  his  profession.  But  with  all  this  industry  and  tal- 
ent, the  work  of  keeping  up  a  newspaper  of  so  high 
a  moral  tone  as  that  to  which  he  was  always  aspir- 
ing, was  simply  beyond  the  ability  of  a  poor  man, 
and  he  was  obliged  to  relinquish  it.  He  went  to  Bos- 
ton and  engaged  as  a  journeyman  printer  for  a  time, 
till  in  1827  he  became  the  editor  of  the  National  Phi- 
lanthropist^ the, first  journal  that  advocated  total  ab- 
stinence, and  in  1828  he  joined  a  friend  at  Benning- 
ton, Vt.,  in  a  journal  devoted  to  peace,  temperance, 
and  anti-slavery. 

On  the  4th  of  July,  1829,  he  delivered  an  address 
in  Park  Street  church,  Boston,  on  the  subject  of  slav- 
ery. At  that  time  the  subject  had  taken  a  deep  and 
absorbing  hold  upon  his  mind.  He  then  regarded  the 
American  Colonization  Society's  as  the  most  practical 
and  feasible  issue  in  the  case — an  opinion  which  he 
afterwards  most  fully  retracted.  At  this  time  he  vis- 
ited the  leading  orthodox  ministers  and  editors  in  and 
about  Boston.  Being  himself  a  child  of  the  church, 
he  desired  to  stir  up  in  behalf  of  th^  slave  that  effi- 
ciency of  church  activity  that  was  effecting  so  much 
in  the  cause  of  temperance.  Burning  with  zeal,  he 
sought  the  then  active  leader  of  the  orthodox  party, 
and  begged  him  to  become  leader  in  the  movement, 
and  command  the  forces  in  a  general  anti-slavery  cru- 
sade. 

Dr.  Beecher  received  him  favorably,  listened  to  him 
courteously,  wished  him  success,  but  said  in  regard  to 


BENJAMIN    LUNDY.  161 

himself  lie  liad  so  "many  irons  in  the  fire"  that  he 
could  not  think  of  putting  in  another.  "Then,"  said 
Garrison,  ^'■you  had  better  let  all  others  go^  and  attend 
to  this  one  aloney  The  results  of  time  have  shown 
that  the  young  printer  saw  further  than  the  sages  of 
his  day. 

It  is  worth  remembering  by  those  who  criticized 
Garrison's  generalship  in  leading  the  anti-slavery  cause, 
that  in  the  outset  he  was  not  in  the  least  ambitious  of 
being  a  general,  and  would  willingly  have  become 
aide-de-camjp  to  the  ruling  forces  of  the  religious  world. 
That  the  campaign  was  carried  on  out  of  the  church 
of  New  England,  and  not  in  and  by  it,  was  because 
the  church  and  the  religious  world  at  that  hour  were 
absorbed  in  old  issues — old  activities  and  schemes  of 
benevolence — and  had  not  grace  given  them  to  see 
that  the  great  critical  national  question  of  the  day  had 
thus  been  passed  out  of  their  hands. 

The  articles  in  Garrison's  paper,  however,  attracted 
the  attention  of  a  little  obscure  old  man,  a  Quaker, 
who  was  laboring  in  the  city  of  Baltimore,  for  the 
cause  of  the  suffering  slaves,  with  a  devotion  and  self- 
sacrifice  worthy  of  the  primitive  Christians. 

Benjamin  Lundy,  a  quiet,  persistent,  drab-clothed, 
meek  old  man,  one  of  those  valiant  little  mice  who 
nibble  undismayed  on  the  nets  which  enchain  the 
strongest  hons,  was  keeping  up,  in  the  city  of  Balti- 
more, an  anti-slavery  paper  which  was  read  only  by  a 
few  people  who  thought  just  as  he  did,  and  which  was 
tolerated  in  southern  society  only  because  everybody 
was  good-naturedly  sure  that  it  was  no  sort  of  matter 
what  it  said. 


162  WILLIAM   LLOYD    GARRISOX. 

Benjamin,  however,  took  his  staff  in  hand,  and 
journeyed  on  foot  up  to  Ben^iington,  Yt,  to  see  the 
man  who  wrote  as  if  he  cared  for  the  slave.  The 
strict  Baptist  and  the  meek  Quaker  met  on  the  com- 
mon ground  of  the  cross  of  Christ.  Both  were  agreed 
in  one  thing ;  that  here  was  Jesus  Christ,  in  the  person 
of  a  persecuted  race,  hungry,  thirsty,  sick  and  in  pris- 
on, with  none  to  visit  and  relieve ;  and  the  only  ques- 
tion was,  would  they  arise  and  go  to  His  help  ? 

So  Mr.  Garrison  went  down  to  the  city  of  Baltimore, 
to  join  his  forces  with  Benjamin  Lundy.  "But,"  as 
he  humorously  observed,  "I  wasn't  much  help  to  him, 
for  he  had  been  all  for  gradual  emancipation,  and  as 
soon  as  I  began  to  look  into  the  matter,  I  became  con- 
vinced that  immediate  abolition  was  the  doctrine  to 
be  preached,  and  I  scattered  his  subscribers  like  pig- 
eons." 

Good  little  Benjamin  took  the  ruinous  zeal  of 
his  new  partner  with  the  tolerance  which  his  sect  ex- 
tends to  every  brother  who  "follows  his  light ; "  but  a 
final  assault  of  Garrison  on  one  of  the  most  villainous 
aspects  of  slavery,  quite  upset  the  enterprise,  and 
landed  him  in  prison.  The  story  is  in  this  wise :  A 
certain  ship,  the  Francis  Todd,  fromNewburyport,  came 
to  Baltimore  and  took  in  a  load  of  slaves  for  the  New 
Orleans  market.  All  the  harrowing  cruelties  and  sep- 
arations which  attend  the  rending  asunder  of  families, 
and  the  sale  of  slaves,  were  enacted  under  the  eyes  of 
the  youthful  philanthropist,  and  in  a  burning  article  he 
denounced  the  inter-state  slave  trade  as  piracy,  and  pi- 
racy of  an  aggravated  and  cruel  kind,  inasmuch  as  those 
born  and  educated  in  civilized  and  Christianized  society, 


FIRST    BATTLE    WITH   SLAVERY.  163 

have  more  sensibility  to  feel  the  evils  thus  jnflicted, 
than  imbruted  savages.  He  denounced  the  owners 
of  the  ship,  and  all  the  parties  in  no  measured  terms, 
and  expressed  his  determination  to  "cover  with  thick 
infamy  all  who  were  engaged  in  the  transaction." 
Then,  to  be  sure,  the  sleeping  tiger  was  roused,  for 
there  was  a  vigor  and  power  in  the  young  editor's  elo- 
quence that  quite  dissipated  the  good-natured  con- 
tempt which  had  hitherto  hung  round  the  paper.  He 
was  indicted  for  libel,  found  guilty,  of  course,  con- 
demned, imprisoned  in  the  cell  of  a  man  who  had 
been  hanged  for  murder.  His  mother  at  this  time  was 
not  living,  but  her  heroic,  undaunted  sj^irit  still  sur- 
vived in  her  son,  who  took  the  baptism  of  persecution 
and  obloquy  not  merely  with  patience,  but  with  the 
joy  which  strong  spirits  feel  in  endurance.  He  wrote 
sonnets  on  the  walls  of  his  prison,  and  by  his  cheerful 
and  engaging  manners  made  friends  of  his  jailor  and 
family,  who  did  everything  to  render  his  situation  as 
comfortable  as  possible.  Some  considerable  eifort  was 
made  for  his  release,  and  much  interest  was  excited  in 
various  quarters  for  him 

He  was  finally  liberated  by  Arthur  Tappan,  who 
paid  the  exorbitant  fine  for  want  of  which  he  was 
imprisoned.  He  went  out  of  jail,  as  people  generally 
do  who  are  imprisoned  for  conscience's  sake,  more  de- 
voted than  ever  to  the  cause  for  which  he  suffered. 
The  river  of  his  life,  which  hitherto  had  had  many 
branches,  all  flowing  in  the  direction  of  general  benev- 
olence, now  narrowed  and  concentrated  itself  into  one 
intense  volume,  to  beat  day  and  night  against  the  prison 


164  WILLIAM   LLOYD    GARRISON". 

walls  of  slavery,  till  its  foundations  should  be  washed 
away,  and  it  should  tumble  to  dust. 

He  issued  a  prospectus  of  an  anti-slavery  journal  at 
Washington,  and  lectured  through  the  northern  cities, 
and  was  surprised  to  find  the  many  and  vital  cords  by 
which  the  Northern  States  were  held  from  the  expres- 
sion of  the  natural  feelings  of  humanity  on  a  subject 
whose  claims  were  so  obvious.  In  Boston  he  in  vain 
tried  to  get  the  use  of  a  hall  to  lecture  in ;  but  a  mob 
was  threatened,  and  of  all  the  public  edifices  in  the 
city,  not  one  could  be  found  whose  owner  would  risk 
it  until  a  club  of  professed  infidels  came  forward,  and 
offered  their  hall  as  a  tribute  to  free  speech. 

On  Jan.  1,  1831,  Mr.  Garrison  issued  the  first  num- 
ber of  the  Liberator.  He  had  no  money.  The  rank, 
respectability  and  religion  of  Boston  alike  disowned 
him.  At  first,  he  and  his  partner,  Isaac  Knapp,  were 
too  poor  even  to  hire  an  ofl&ce  of  their  own,  but  the 
foreman  in  the  office  of  the  Christian  Examiner  gen- 
erously employed  them  as  journeymen,  taking  their 
labor  as  compensation  for  the  use  of  his  type.  Mr. 
Garrison,  after  working  as  journeyman  printer  all  day, 
spent  the  greater  part  of  the  night  in  writing  and 
printing  his  paper ;  and  under  such  auspices  the  first 
number  came  out. 

Nothing  more  remarkable  in  human  literature  has 
ever  appeared  than  those  few  memorable  paragraphs  in 
which  this  obscure,  unfriended  young  mechanic  thus 
issued  his  declaration  of  war  against  an  evil  embodied 
in  the  Constitution  and  protected  by  the  laws  of  one 
of  the  most  powerful  nations  of  the  earth.  David 
meeting  Goliath  with  a  sling  and  stone  was  nothing  to 


ESTABLISHMENT    OF   THE    LIBERATOR.  165 

it.  The  words  have  a  prophetic  assurance  that  sounds 
solemn  in  the  remembrance  of  recent  events.  He 
speaks  as  one  having  authority : 

'■'During  my  recent  tour  for  the  purpose  of  exciting 
the  minds  of  the  people  by  a  series  of  discourses  on 
the  subject  of  slavery,  every  place  that  I  visited  gave 
fresh  evidence  of  the  fact  that  a  greater  revolution  in 
public  sentiment  was  to  be  effected  in  the  free  States 
— and  particularly  in  New  England — than  at  the  South. 
I  found  contempt  more  bitter,  opposition  more  active, 
detraction  more  relentless,  prejudice  more  stubborn, 
and   apathy   more   frozen   than    among   slaveholders 
themselves.     Of  course  there  were  individual  excep- 
tions to  the  contrary.     This  state  of  things  afflicted, 
but  did  not  dishearten  me.     I  determined,  at  every 
hazard,  to  lift  up  the  standard  of  emancipation  in  the 
eyes  of  the  nation,  within  sight  of  Bunker  Hill,  and 
in  the  birth-place  of  liberty.     That  standard  is  now 
unfurled ;  and  long  may  it  float,  unhurt  by  the  spolia- 
tions of  time  or  the  missiles  of  a  desperate  foe ;  yea, 
till  every  chain  be  broken,   and   every  bondman  set 
free !     Let  Southern  oppressors  tremble ;  let  their  se- 
cret abettors  tremble ;  let  all  the  enemies  of  the  per- 
secuted black  tremble.     Assenting  to  the  self-evident 
truths  maintained  in  the  American  Declaration  of  In- 
dependence,  '  that  all  men  are  created  equal,  and  en- 
dowed by  their  Creator  with  certain  inalienable  rights, 
among  which  are  hfe,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  hap- 
piness,' I  shall  strenuously  contend  for  the  immediate 
enfranchisement  of  our  slave  population. 

****** 


166  WILLIAM   LLOYD    GARRISON. 

"I  am  aware  that  many  object  to  tlie  severity  of 
my  language ;  but  is  tliere  not  cause  for  severity  ?  I 
will  be  as  harsli  as  truth,  and  as  uncompromising  as 
justice.  On  this  subject  I  do  not  wish  to  think,  or 
speak,  or  write  with  moderation.  No !  No !  Tell  a 
man  whose  house  is  on  fire  to  give  a  moderate  alarm ; 
tell  him  to  moderately  rescue  his  wife  from  the  hands 
of  the  ravisher ;  tell  the  mother  to  gradually  extricate 
her  babe  from  the  fire  into  which  it  has  fallen ;  but 
urge  me  not  to  use  moderation  in  a  cause  like  the ' 
present !  I  am  in  earnest.  I  will  not  equivocate — I 
will  not  excuse — I  will  not  retreat  a  single  inch.  And 
I  WILL  BE  HEARD.  The  apathy  of  the  people  is 
enough  to  make  every  statue  leap  from  its  pedestal, 
and  to  hasten  the  resurrection  of  the  dead. 

It  is  pretended  that  I  am  retarding  the  cause  of 
emancipation  by  the  coarseness  of  my  invective,  and 
the  precipitancy  of  my  measures.  The  charge  is  not 
true.  On  this  question,  my  influence,  humble  as  it  is, 
is  felt  at  this  moment  to  a  considerable  extent ;  and  it 
shall  be  felt  in  coming  years — not  perniciously,  but 
beneficially — not  as  a  curse,  but  as  a  blessing ;  and  pos- 
terity  WILL  bear  testimony  THAT  I  WAS  RIGHT.       I  dc- 

sire  to  thank  God  that  He  enables  me  to  disregard  '  the 
fear  of  man  which  bringeth  a  snare,'  and  to  speak 
truth  in  its  simplicity  and  power ;  and  I  here  close 
with  this  dedication : 

■55-  *  *  *  *  * 

"  Oppression !  I  have  seen  thee,  face  to  face, 
And  met  thy  cruel  eye  and  cloudy  brow ; 
But  thy  soul-withering  glance  I  fear  not  now — 
For  dread  to  prouder  feelings  doth  give  place, 
Of  deep  abhorrence !     Scorning  the  disgrace 


ESTABLISHMENT    OF    THE    LIBERATOR.  167 

Of  slavish  knees  that  at  thy  footstool  bow, 

I  also  kneel — ^but  with  far  other  vow 

Do  hail  thee  and  thy  herd  of  hirelings  base ; 

I  swear,  while  hfe-blood  warms  my  throbbing  veins, 

Still  to  oppose  and  thwart,  with  heart  and  hand, 

Thy  brutalizing  sway — till  Afric's  chains 

Are  burst,  and  Freedom  rules  the  rescued  land, 

Trampling  Opression  and  his  iron  rod  ; 

Such  is  the  vow  I  take — so  help  me  God ! " 

Just  thirty-five  years  after,  on  the  first  of  January, 
1866,  Garrison  had  the  happiness  of  announcing  that 
the  glorious  work  to  which  he  had  devoted  himself 
was  finally  finished ;  and  with  humble  ascriptions  of 
all  the  praise  and  glory  to  God,  he  proclaimed  the 
cessation  of  the  Liberator.  His  own  son  had  been  a 
leader  in  that  conquering  army  Avhicli  entered  Charles- 
ton amid  the  shouts  of  liberated  slaves,  and  the  fet- 
ters and  hand-cuffs  of  the  slave-mart  were  sent  as 
peaceful  trophies  to  the  Liberator  oflSce  in  Boston. 
Never  was  it  given  to  any  mortal  in  one  generation  to 
witness  a  more  perfect  triumph  of  a  moral  enterprise! 

But  before  this  triumph  came  were  years  of  sharp 
conflict.  Tones  so  ringing  and  so  resolute,  coming 
from  the  poorest  den  in  Boston,  could  not  but  find  lis- 
teners !  The  vital  instincts  of  all  forms  of  oppression 
are  surprisingly  acute,  and  prompt  to  discriminate  afar 
what  is  really  a  true  and  what  a  false  alarm.  A  storm 
of  agitation  began,  which  swelled,  and  eddied,  and 
howled,  and  shook,  and  convulsed  the  nation  from 
year  to  year,  till  the  end  came. 

The  first  number  of  the  Liberator  brought  fifty  dol- 
lars from  James  Forteu,  a  colored  man  of  Philadelphia, 
and  the  names  of  twenty-five  subscribers ;  and  before 


168  WILLLOI   LLOYD    GARRISON. 

long  an  obscure  room  was  rented  as  an  office,  where 
Garrison  and  his  partner  made  their  bed  on  the  floor, 
boarded  themselves,  and  printed  their  paper. 

A  Southern  magistrate,  trembling  for  the  institutions 
of  his  country,  wrote  a  somewhat  dictatorial  appeal  to 
the  mayor  of  Boston,  Harrison  Gray  Otis,  to  suppress 
that  paper.  Mr.  Otis  wrote  in  reply,  that  having  fer- 
reted out  the  paper  and  the  editor,  he  found  that  his 
office  was  an  obscure  hole,  his  only  visible  auxiliary  a 
negro  boy,  his  supporters  a  few  insignificant  persons 
of  all  colors — from  which  he  argued  that  there  was 
no  occasion  for  alarm,  even  though  the  obscure  paper 
should  prove  irrepressible.  Very  differently,  however, 
thought  the  South.  Every  mail  brought  to  Garrison 
threats  of  assassination,  and  letters  whose  mingled 
profanity  and  obscenity  can  only  be  described  as  John 
Bunyan  describes  the  discourse  of  Apollyon,  "He  spake 
as  a  dragon."  The  Governors  of  one  or  two  States  set 
a  price  upon  his  head.  The  Governor  of  Georgia,  in 
terms  somewhat  more  decent,  offered  five  thousand 
dollars  to  any  one  who  should  arrest  and  bring  to  trial 
under  the  laws  of  that  State,  the  editor  or  publisher 
of  the  Liberator.  Many  of  Mr.  Garrison's  friends, 
deeming  his  life  in  danger,  besought  him  to  wear  arms. 
He  was,  however,  from  religious  conviction,  a  non-re- 
sistant of  evil,  interpreting  with  literal  strictness  the 
Saviour's  directions  on  that  subject ;  and  so  committed 
his  life  simply  to  the  good  providence  of  God. 

On  January  1,  1832,  he  secured  the  co-operation  of 
eleven  others,  who,  with  himself,  organized  the  Amer- 
ican Anti-Slavery  Society  upon  the  principle  of  imme- 
diate emancipation.     Affiliated  associations  sprang  up 


ESTABLISHMENT    OF    THE   LIBERATOR.  169 

all  over  the  country — books,  tracts,  lectures,  all  the 
machinery  of  moral  agitation,  began  active  movement. 
He  went  to  England  as  agent  for  the  Emancipation 
Society,  to  hold  counsel  with  the  men  who  had  pion- 
eered the  same  work  successfully  in  England.  He 
was  warmly  received  by  Wilberfcrce,  Brougham, 
Clarkson,  and  their  associates,  and  succeeded  in  open- 
ing their  eyes  to  the  entire  inefficiency  of  the  Coloni- 
zation Society  as  a  substitute  for  the  great  duty  of 
immediate  emancipation,  so  that  Wilberforce,  with 
eleven  of  his  coadjutors,  issued  a  protest  against  it, 
not  as  in  itself  considered,  but  as  it  had  been  made  a 
shield  to  the  consciences  of  those  who  deferred  their 
immediate  duty  to  the  slave  on  the  ground  of  this  dis- 
tant and  precarious  remedy. 

While  in  England  this  time,  Mr.  Garrison  was  invit- 
ed to  Stafford  House,  and  treated  with  marked  atten- 
tion by  the  Duchess  of  Sutherland,  then  in  the  zenith 
of  that  magnificent  beauty  which,  in  union  with  a 
generous  nature  and  winning  manners,  made  her  one 
of  the  most  distinguished  leaders  among  the  nobility 
of  the  times.  With  a  heart  to  feel  every  grand  and 
heroic  impulse,  she  had  entered  with  enthusiasm  into 
the  anti-slavery  movement  of  her  own  country,  and 
was  prepared  to  welcome  the  obscure,  unknown  apos- 
tle of  the  same  faith  from  American  shores.  At  her 
request.  Garrison  sat  for  his  portrait  to  one  of  the 
most  distinguished  artists  of  the  time,  and  the  copy 
was  retained  among  the  memorabilia  of  Stafford 
House.  Garrison  humorously  remarked  that  many 
had  desired  to  have  his  head  before  now,  but  the  solic- 
itation had:  never  come  in  so  flattering  a  form.     The 


170  WILLIAM   LLOYD    GAERISON. 

noble  woman  lias  lived  to  enjoy  tlie  triumpli  of  tliat 
cause  in  which  her  large  heart  gave  her  that  right  of 
personal  possession  which  belongs  to  the  very  highest 
natures. 

On  his  return  from  England  he  assisted  in  organiz- 
ing the  American  Anti- Slavery  Society  in  Philadelphia, 
the  declaration  of  whose  principles  was  prepared  by 
him.  From  this  time  the  anti-slavery  agitation  was 
intensified,  and  the  era  of  mob  violence  swept  over 
the  country.  The  holding  of  an  anti-slavery  society 
in  any  place  was  the  appointed  signal  for  scenes  of 
riotous  violence.  In  Philadelphia,  Pennsylvania  Hall 
was  burned,  the  negroes  abused  and  maltreated.  In 
Cincinnati,  Birney's  printing-press  and  types  were 
thrown  into  the  Ohio,  and  the  negroes  for  days  were 
hunted  like  beasts.  In  Alton,  Lovejoy  was  shot  while 
defending  his  printing-press,  and  Boston,  notwithstand- 
ing the  sepulchres  of  the  fathers,  and  the  shadow  of 
Bunker  Hill  spire,  had  her  hour  of  the  powers  of  dark- 
ness. Leading  presses  abused  the  abolitionists  in 
terms  which  aroused  every  vindictive  passion  of  the 
mob,  and  in  October,  1835,  a  meeting  of  the  Female 
Anti-Slavery  Society  of  Boston  was  riotously  broken 
up  by  a  collection  of  persons,  described  in  the  jour- 
nals of  the  day  as  "gentlemen  of  property  and  stand- 

ing." 

The  heroines  of  that  memorable  day  and  time,  were 
ladies  from  the  very  first  Massachusetts  families ;  sprung 
from  the  old  heroic  stock  of  her  historic  fame.  For 
vigor  of  mind,  for  education,  for  beauty,  accomplish- 
ments and  genius,  some  of  them  might  be  cited  who 
would  scarce  find  superiors  in  any  land.     Their  meet- 


THE    RESPECTABLE    BOSTON    MOB.  171 

ing  was  in  every  way  feminine  and  proper,  and  in 
strict  accordance  with  the  spirit  and  customs  of  New 
England,  which  recognize  female  organizations  for  va- 
rious benevolent  purj)oses,  as  one  of  the  most  approved 
means  for  carrying  on  society. 

There  was  no  more  reason  why  a  female  Anti- Sla- 
very Society  should  not  meet  quietly,  transact  its  own. 
business  and  listen  to  speeches  of  its  own  chosen  ora- 
tors, than  the  Female  Foreign  Missionary  Society  or 
the  Female  Home  Missionary  Society,  or  the  Female 
Temperance  Union. 

But  certain  newspapers  of  Boston  called  attention 
to  the  fact  that  this  meeting  was  so  to  be  held,  in  arti- 
cles written  in  that  well  known  style  which  stirs  up 
and  invites  that  very  mobocratic  spirit  which  it  pre- 
tends to  deprecate. 

These  papers  proceeded  to  say  that  those  ladies  were 
about  to  hold  a  dangerous  kind  of  meeting,  which 
would  be  sure  to  end  in  a  mob,  that  they  were  about 
to  be  addressed  by  George  Thompson,  who  was  de- 
clared to  be  nothing  more  nor  less  than  a  British  agi- 
tator, sent  over  to  make  dissension  and  trouble  in 
America,  and  kept  here  for  that  purpose  by  British 
funds. 

It  was  now  stated  in  the  public  prints  that  several 
store  keepers  in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  the  Hall, 
had  petitioned  the  Mayor  to  suppress  the  meeting,  as  in 
case  of  a  riot  in  the  neighborhood  their  property 
might  be  in  danger.  A  placard  was  posted  and  cii'- 
culated  through  the  city  to  the  following  purport,  that 

'  The  infamous  foreign  scoundrel,  Thompson,  would 
hold  forth  'in  Anti-Slavery  Hall  in  the  afternoon,  and 


172  WILLIAil   LLOYD    GARRISON. 

that  the  present  was  a  fair  opportunity  for  the  friends 
of  the  Union  'to  snake  him  out ;'  that  a  purse  of  $100 
has  been  subscribed  by  a  number  of  patriotic  citizens 
to  reward  the  individual  who  would  lay  violent  hands 
on  him,  so  that  he  might  be  brought  to  the  tar  kettle 
before  dark." 

In  consequence,  the  Mayor  sent  a  deputy  to  Mr. 
Garrison  to  know  if  Mr.  Thompson  did  intend  to  ad- 
dress the  meeting,  for  if  he  did  not  he  wished  to  ap- 
prise the  people  of  it  in  order  to  tranquilize  the  ex- 
citement, and  if  he  did,  it  would  be  necessary  to 
double  the  constabulary  forces.- 

Mr.  Garrison  sent  him  word  that  Mr.  Thompson  was 
out  of  town,  and  would  not  be  present  at  the  meeting. 
The  remainder  of  this  scene  is  best  given  in  ^ir.  Gar- 
rison's own  words: 

"As  the  meeting  was  to  commence  at  3  o'clock, 
P.  M.,  I  went  to  the  hall  about  twenty  minutes  before 
that  time.  Perhaps  a  hundred  individuals  had  already 
gathered  around  the  street  door  and  opposite  to  the 
building,  and  their  number  was  rapidly  augmenting. 
On  ascending  into  the  hall,  I  found  about  fifteen  or 
twenty  ladies  assembled,  sitting  with  serene  counte- 
nances, and  a  crowd  of  noisy  intruders  (mostly  young 
men)  gazing  upon  them,  through  whom  I  urged  my 
way  with  considerable  difficulty.  'That's  Garrison,' 
was  the  exclamation  of  some  of  their  number,  as  I 
quietly  took  my  seat.  Perceiving  that  they  had  no  in- 
tention of  retiring,  I  went  to  them  and  calmly  said — 
'  Gentlemen,  perhaps  you  are  not  aware  that  this  is  a 
meeting  of  the  Boston  Female  Anti-Slavery  Society, 
called  and  intended  exclusively  for  ladies^  and  those 


THE   RESPECTABLE   BOSTON   MOB.  173 

only  who  have  been  invited  to  address  them.  Under- 
standing this  fact,  you  will  not  be  so  rude  or  indeco- 
rous as  to  thrust  your  presence  upon  this  meeting.  If, 
gentlemen^''  I  pleasantly  continued,  'any  of  you  are 
ladies — in  disguise — why,  only  apprise  me  of  the  fact, 
give  me  your  names,  and  I  will  introduce  you  to  the 
rest  of  your  sex,  and  you  can  take  seats  among  them 
accordingly.'  I  then  sat  down,  and,  for  a  few  mo- 
ments, their  conduct  was  more  orderly.  However,  the 
stair- way  and  upper  door  of  the  hall  were  soon  dense- 
ly filled  with  a  brazen-faced  crew,  whose  behavior 
grew  more  and  more  indecent  and  outrageous.  Perceiv- 
ing that  it  would  be  impracticable  for  me,  or  any  other 
person,  to  address  the  ladies  ;  and  believing,  as  I  was 
the  only  male  abolitionist  in  the  hall,  that  my  presence 
would  serve  as  a  pretext  for  the  mob  to  annoy  the 
meeting,  I  held  a  short  colloquy  with  the  excellent 
President  of  the  Society,  telling  her  that  I  would  with- 
draw, unless  she  particularly  desired  me  to  stay.  It 
was  her  earnest  wish  that  I  would  retire,  as  well  for 
my  own  safety  as  for  the  peace  of  the  meeting.  She 
assured  me  that  the  Society  would  resolutely  but  calm- 
ly proceed  to  the  transaction  of  its  business,  and  leave 
the  issue  with  God.  I  left  the  hall  accordingly,  and 
would  have  left  the  building,  if  the  stair-case  had  not 
been  crowded  to  excess.  This  being  impracticable,  I 
retired  into  the  Anti- Slavery  Office,  (which  is  separa- 
ted from  the  hall  by  a  board  partition,)  accompanied 
by  my  friend,  Mr.  Charles  C.  Burleigh.  It  was  deemed 
prudent  to  lock  the  door,  to  prevent  the  mob  from 
rushing  in  and  destroying  our  publications. 


174  WILLIAM   LLOYD    GARRISON. 

In  the  mean  time,  the  crowd  in  the  street  had  aug- 
mented from  a  hundred  to  thousands.  The  cry  was 
for  '  Thompson  !  Thompson !' — but  the  Mayor  had  now 
arrived,  and,  addressing  the  rioters,  he  assured  them 
that  Mr.  Thompson  was  not  in  the  city,  and  besought 
them  to  disperse.  As  well  might  he  have  attempted 
to  propitiate  a  troop  of  ravenous  wolves.  None  went 
away — but  the  tumult  continued  momentarily  to  in- 
crease. It  was  apparent,  therefore,  that  the  hostility 
of  the  throng  was  not  concentrated  upon  Mr.  Thomp- 
son but  that  it  was  as  deadly  against  the  Society  and 
the  Anti-Slavery  cause.  The  fact  is  worthy  of  special 
note — for  it  incontestably  proves  that  the  object  of 
these  '  respectable  and  influential '  rioters  was  to  put 
down  the  cause  of  Emancipation,  and  that  the  preju- 
dice against  Mr.  Thompson  was  only  a  mere  pretext. 

Notwithstanding  the  presence  and  frantic  behavior 
of  rioters  in  the  hall,  the  meeting  of  the  Society  was 
regularly  called  to  order  by  the  President.  She  read 
a  select  and  exceedingly  appropriate  portion  of  scrip- 
ture, and  offered  a  fervent  prayer  to  God  for  direction 
and  succour  and  the  forgiveness  of  enemies  and  rioters. 
It  was  an  awful,  sublime  and  soul-thrilling  scene  * 
*  *  The  clear,  untremulous  tone  of  that  Christian 
heroine  in  prayer,  occasionally  awed  the  ruffians  into 
silence,  and  was  heard  distinctly  even  in  the  midst  of 
their  hisses,  yells  and  curses — for  they  could  not  long 
silently  endure  the  agony  of  conviction,  and  their 
conduct  became  furious.  They  now  attempted  to 
break  down  the  partition,  and  partially  succeeded ; 
but  that  little  band  of  women  still  maintained  their 


THE   RESPECTABLE    BOSTON   MOB.  175 

ground  unshi'inkingly,  and  endeavored  to  transact 
their  business. 

An  assault  was  now  made  upon  the  door  of  the  of. 
fice,  the  lower  panel  of  which  was  instantly  dashed  to 
pieces.  Stooping  down,  and  glaring  upon  me  as  I  sat 
at  the  desk,  writing  an  account  of  the  riot  t-o  a  distant 
friend,  the  ruffians  cried  out — '  There  he  is !  That's 
Garrison!  Out  with  the  scoundrel!'  &c.,  &o.  Turn- 
ing to  Mr.  Burleigh  I  said — 'You  may  as  well  open  the 
door,  and  let  them  come  in  and  do  their  worst.'  But 
he,  with  great  presence  of  mind,  went  out,  locked  the 
door,  put  the  key  into  his  pocket,  and  by  his  admira- 
ble firmness  succeeded  in  keeping  the  office  safe. 

Two  or  three  constables  having  cleared  the  hall  and 
staircase  of  the  mob,  the  Mayor  came  in  and  ordered 
the  ladies  to  desist,  assuring  them  that  he  could  not 
any  longer  guarantee  protection,  if  they  did  not  take 
immediate  advantage  of  the  opportunity  to  retire  fi'om 
the  building.  Accordingly,  they  adjourned,  to  meet 
at  the  house  of  one  of  their  number,  for  the  comple- 
tion of  their  business ;  but  as  they  passed  through  the 
crowd,  they  were  greeted  with  '  taunts,  hisses,  and 
cheers  of  mobocratic  triumph,  from  gentlemen  of  prop- 
erty and  standing  from  all  parts  of  the  city.'  Even 
their  absence  did  not  diminish  the  throng.  Thomp- 
son was  not  there — the  ladies  were  not  there — but 
'  Garrison  is  there ! '  was  the  cry.  '  Garrison !  Gar- 
rison !  We  must  have  Garrison !  Out  with  him ! 
Lynch  him!'  These  and  numberless  other  exclama- 
tions arose  fi'om  the  multitude.  For  a  moment  their 
attention  was  diverted  from  me  to  the  Anti-Slavery 
sign,  and  they  vociferously  demanded  its  possession. 


176  WILLIAM   LLOYD   GARRISON. 

It  is  painful  to  state,  that  tlie  Mayor  promptly  com- 
plied with  their  demand !  So  agitated  and  alarmed  had 
he  become  that  in  very  weakness  of  spirit  he  ordered 
the  sign  to  be  hurled  to  the  ground,  and  it  was  instant- 
ly broken  in  a  thousand  fragments  by  the  infuriated 
populace.  The  sign  being  demolished  the  cry  for  Gar- 
rison was  resumed  more  loudly  than  ever.  It  was 
now  apparent  that  the  multitude  would  not  disperse 
till  I  left  the  building,  and  as  egress  out  of  the  front 
door  was  impossible,  the  Mayor  and  some  of  his  assist- 
ants as  well  as  some  of  my  friends  earnestly  besought 
me  to  escape  in  the  rear  of  the  building.  At  this 
moment  an  abolition  brother,  whose  mind  had  been 
previously  settled  on  the  peace  question,  in  his  anguish 
and  alarm  for  my  safety,  and  in  the  view  of  the  help- 
lessness of  the  civil  authority,  said,  'I  must  henceforth 
repudiate  the  principle  of  non-resistance.  When  the 
civil  arm  is  powerless,  my  own  rights  are  trodden  in 
the  dust,  and  the  lives  of  my  friends  are  put  in  immi- 
nent peril  by  ruf&ans,  I  will  hereafter  stand  ready  to 
defend  myself  and  them  at  all  hazards.'  Putting  my 
hand  upon  his  shoulder,  I  said,  '  Hold,  my  dear  broth- 
er !  You  know  not  what  spirit  you  are  of  Of  what 
value  or  utility  are  the  principles  of  peace  and  forgiv- 
ness,  if  we  may  repudiate  them  in  the  hour  of  peril  and 
suffering  ?  Do  you  wish  to  become  like  one  of  those 
violent  and  blood-thirsty  men  who  are  seeking  my  life  ? 
Shall  we  give  blow  for  blow,  and  array  sword  against 
sword  ?  God  forbid !  I  will  perish  sooner  than  raise 
my  hand  against  any  man,  even  in  self-defence,  and 
let  none  of  my  friends  resort  to  violence  for  my  protec- 
tion.    If  my  life  be  taken,  the  calise  of  emancipation 


THE   RESPECTABLE    BOSTON   MOB.  177 

will  not  suffer.  God  reigns — his  throne  is  undisturbed 
by  this  storm^-he  will  make  the  wrath  of  man  to 
praise  him,  and  the  remainder  he  will  restrain — his  om- 
nipotence will  at  length  be  victorious.' 

Preceded  by  my  faithful   and  beloved  friend  Mr. 

J R C ,  I  dropped  from  a  back  window 

on  to  a  shed,  and  narrowly  escaped  falling  headlong 
to  the  ground.  We  entered  into  a  carpenter's  shop, 
through  which  we  attempted  to  get  into  Wilson's 
Lane,  but  found  our  retreat  cut  off  by  the  mob.  They 
raised  a  shout  as  soon  as  we  came  in  sight,  but  the 
proprietor  promptly  closed  the  door  of  his  shop,  kept 
them  at  bay  for  a  time,  and  thus  kindly  afforded  me 
an  opportunifty  to  find  some  other  passage.  I  told 
Mr.  C.  it  would  be  futile  to  attempt  to  escape — I 
would  go  out  to  the  mob,  and  let  them  deal  with  me 
as  they  might  elect ;  but  he  thought  it  was  my  duty 
to  avoid  them  as  long  as  possible.  We  then  went  up ' 
stairs,  and  finding  a  vacancy  in  one  corner  of  the 
room,  I  got  into  it,  and  he  and  a  young  lad  piled  up 
some  boards  in  front  of  me,  to  shield  me  from  obser- 
vation. In  a  few  minutes  several  ruffians  broke  into  the 
chamber,  who  seized  Mr.  C.  in  a  rough  manner,  and  led 
him  out  to  the  view  of  the  mob,  saying,  '  This  is  not 
Garrison,  but  Garrison's  and  Thompson's  friend,  and  he 
says  he  knows  where  Garrison  is,  but  won't  tell.'  Then 
a  shout  of  exultation  was  raised  by  the  mob,  and  what 
became  of  him  I  do' not  know ;  though,  as  I  was  imme- 
diately discovered,  I  presume  he  escaped  without  mate- 
rial injury.  On  seeing  me,  three  or  four  of  the  rioters, 
uttering  a  yell,  furiously  dragged  me  to  the  window, 
with  the  intenxion  of  hurling  me  from  that  height  to  the 


178  WILLIAM   LLOYD   GARRISON. 

ground ;  but  one  of  them  relented,  and  said,   '  Don't 
let  us  kill  him  outright.'     So  they  drew  me  back,  and 
coiled  a  rope  about  my  body — probably  to  drag  me 
through  the  streets.     I  bowed  to  the  mob,  and  request- 
ing them  to  wait  patiently  until  I  could  descend,  went 
down  upon  a  ladder  that  was  raised  for  that  purpose. 
I  fortunately  extricated  myself  from  the  rope,  and  was 
seized  by  two  or  three  of  the  leading  rioters,  powerful 
and  athletic  men,  by  whom  I  was  dragged  along  bare- 
headed, (for  my  hat  had  been  knocked  off  and  cut  in 
pieces  on  the  spot,)   a   friendly  voice  in  the  crowd 
shouting,   '  He  shan't  be  hurt !    He  is  an  American ! ' 
This  seemed  to  excite  sympathy  in  the  breasts  of  some 
others,   and   they   reiterated   the  same   cry.     Blows, 
however,  were  aimed  at  my  head  by  such  as  were  of 
a  cruel  spirit,  and  at  last  they  succeeded   in  tearing 
nearly  all   my  clothes  from   my  body.     Thus  was  I 
dragged  through  Wilson's  Lane  into  State  street,  in 
the  rear  of  the  City  Hall,  over  the  ground  that  was 
stained  with  the  blood  of  the  first  martyrs  in  the  cause 
of  Liberty  and  Independence,  in  the  memorable  mas- 
sacre of  1770 ;  and  upon  which  was  proudly  unfurled, 
only  a  few  years  since,  with  joyous  acclamations,  the 
beautiful  banner  presented  to  the  gallant  Poles  by  the 
young  men  of  Boston !     What  a  scandalous  and  re- 
volting contrast!     My  offence  was  in  pleading  for  lib- 
erty— liberty  for  my  enslaved  countrymen,   colored 
though  they  be — liberty  of  speech  and  of  the  press 
for  ALL !     And  upon  that    '  consecrated  spot '   I  was 
made  an  object  of  derision  and  scorn. 

They  proceeded   with  me  in  the  direction  of  the 
City  Hall,  the  cry  being  raised,  '  To  the  Common ! ' 


THE   RESPECTABLE   BOSTON   MOB.  179 

whether  to  give  me  a  coat  of  tar  and  leathers,  or  to 
throw  me  into  the  pond,  was  problematical  As  we 
approached  the  south  door,  the  Mayor  attempted  to 
protect  me  by  his  presence ;  but  as  he  was  unassisted 
by  any  show  of  authority  or  force,  he  was  quickly 
thrust  aside ;  and  now  came  a  tremendous  rush  on  the 
part  of  the  mob  to  prevent  my  entering  the  hall.  For 
a  time  the  conflict  was  desperate ;  but  at  length  a  res- 
cue was  effected  by  a  posse  that  came  to  the  help  of 
the  Mayor,  by  whom  I  was  can'ied  up  to  the  Mayor's 
room. 

In  view  of  my  denuded  condition,  one  individual  in 
the  Post  office  below  stairs  kindly  lent  me  a  pair  of 
pantaloons,  another  a  coat,  a  third  a  stock,  a  fourth  a 
cap,  &c.  After  a  brief  consultation,  the  mob  densely 
surrounding  and  threatening  the  City  Hall  and  Post 
Office,  the  Mayor  and  his  advisers  said  that  my  life 
depended  on  committing  me  to  jail,  ostensibly  as  a 
disturber  of  the  peace.  Accordingly  a  hack  was  got 
ready  at  the  door  and  I  was  put  into  it,  supported  by 
Sheriff  Parkman  and  Ebenezer  Bailey,  the  Mayor 
leading  the  way.  And  now  ensued  a  scene  which 
baffles  all  description.  As  the  ocean  lashed  to  fury 
by  a  storm,  seeks  to  whelm  a  bark  beneath  the  waves, 
so  did  the  mob,  enraged  at  their  disappointment,  rush 
like  a  whii'lwind  upon  the  frail  vehicle  in  which  I  sat, 
and  endeavored  to  drag  me  out  of  it.  Escape  seemed 
a  physical  impossibility.  They  clung  to  the  wheels — 
dashed  open  the  doors — seized  hold  of  the  horses — 
and  tried  to  upset  the  carriage.  They  were,  however, 
vigorously  repulsed  by  the  police,  a  constable  sprang 
in  by  my  side,  the  doors  were  closed,  and  the  driver, 


180  WILLIAM   LLOYD    GARRISON. 

using  his  whip  on  the  bodies  of  the  horses  and  the 
heads  of  the  rioters,  happily  made  an  opening  through 
the  crowd,  and  drove  with  all  speed  to  Leverett 
street. 

In  a  few  moments  I  was  locked  up  in  a  cell,  safe 
from  my  persecutors,  accompanied  by  two  delightful 
associates,  a  good  conscience  and  a  cheerful  mind.  In 
the  course  of  the  evening  several  of  my  friends  came 
to  my  grated  window  to  sympathise  and  confer  with 
me,  with  whom  I  held  strengthening  conversation,  till 
the  hour  of  retirement,  when  I  threw  myself  on  my 
prison  bed,  and  slept  tranquilly.  In  the  morning,  I 
inscribed  upon  the  walls  of  my  cell,  with  a  pencil,  the 
following  lines: 

'Wm.  Lloyd  Garrison  was  put  into  this  cell  on 
Wednesday  afternoon,  Oct.  21,  1835,  to  save  him  from 
the  violence  of  a  "respectable  and  influential"  mob, 
who  sought  to  destroy  him  for  preaching  the  abomin- 
able and  dangerous  doctrine  that  "all  men  are  created 
equal,"  and  that  all  oppression  is  odious  in  the  sight 
of  God.  "Hail,  Columbia ! "  Cheers  for  the  Autocrat 
of  Russia,  and  the  Sultan  of  Turkey ! 

Reader,  let  this  inscription  remain  till  the  last  slave 
in  this  despotic  land  be  loosed  from  his  fetters.' 

'  When  peace  within  the  bosom  reigns, 
And  conscience  gives  th'  approving  voice, 

Though  bound  the  human  form  in  chains, 
Yet  can  the  soul  aloud  rejoice. 

'Tis  true,  my  footsteps  are  confined — 

I  cannot  range  beyond  this  cell ; 
But  what  can  circumscribe  my  mind  ? 

To  chain  the  winds  attempt  as  well ! ' 


THE   RESPECTABLE   BOSTON   MOB.  181 

'  Confine  me  as  a  prisoner — but  bind  me  not  as  a  slave. 
I  Punish  me  as  a  criminal — but  hold  me  not  as  a  chattel. 

Torture  me  as  a  man — but  drive  me  not  like  a  beast. 
Doubt  my  sanity — but  acknowledge  my  immortality.' 

In  tlie  course  of  the  forenoon,  after  passing  through 
the  mockery  of  an  examination,  for  form's  sake,  before 
Judge  Whitman,  I  was  released  from  prison ;  but,  at 
the  earnest  solicitation  of  the  city  authorities^  in  order 
to  tranquili^e  the  public  mind,  I  deemed  it  proper  to 
leave  the  city  for  a  few  days,  accompanied  by  my  wife, 
whose  situation  was  such  as  to  awaken  the  strongest 
solicitude  for  her  life." 

At  this  distance  of  time  it  is  difficult  to  conceive  of 
such  scenes  as  occurring  in  Boston.  They  are  to  be  ac- 
counted for  by  two  things.  First,  the  intense  keen- 
ness of  the  instincts  of  the  Slave-holding  power  in  the 
United  States,  in  discriminating  from  afar  what  the  re- 
sults of  the  Anti- Slavery  discussion  would  be,  and  the 
real  power  which  was  arising  in  the  apparently  feeble 
body  of  the  Abolitionists ;  and  second,  the .  thousand 
ties  of  politics,  trade,  blood  relationship,  friendship 
and  religion  that  interlaced  the  South  with  the  North, 
and  made  the  North  for  many  years  a  tool  of  southern 
dictators  and  a  mere  reflection  of  southern  sympathies. 
There  was  scarcely  a  thing  in  northern  society  that 
was  not  interwoven  and  intertwisted  with  southern 
society.  Northern  schools  and  colleges  were  full  of 
southern  scholars — northern  teachers  were  all  the  while 
seeking  places  on  southern  plantations.  The  great 
political  bodies  had  each  its  southern  wing,  every 
religious  denomination  had  its  southern  members  and 
southern  interests.     Every  kind  of  trade  and  industrial 


182  WILLIAM   LLOYD    GARRISON. 

calling  liad  its  soutliern  outlet.  The  ship  builders  of 
Maine  went  to  Charleston  for  their  cargoes.  Planta- 
tions were  fitted  out  at  the  North,  by  every  kind  of 
trade.  Our  mercantile  world  was  truly  and  in  fact 
one  firm  with  the  South  and  felt  any  disturbance  to 
them  as  virtually  as  the  South  itself 

Hence  Garrison's  instinctive  feeling  that  the  battle 
was  to  be  fought  in  the  Norths  where  as  yet  there  was 
a  free  press  and  the  right  of  free  speech. 

It  was  not  long  before  the  South  perceived  that  if 
free  inquiry  and  free  discussion  were  going  to  be  al- 
lowed in  Massachusetts,  it  would  be  all  over  with  them, 
and  like  men  who  were  brought  up  always  to  have 
their  own  way  and  had  but  to  command  to  be  obeyed, 
several  southern  states  sent  immediate  and  earnest 
communications  to  the  Massachusetts  Legislature,  re- 
questing the  General  Court  to  enact  laws  making  it 
penal  for  the  citizens  of  Massachusetts  to  form  aboli- 
tion societies  or  print  and  publish  abolition  sentiments. 

The  Governor  of  Massachusetts,  in  his  message  to 
the  Legislature  at  this  time,  expressed  his  belief 
that  the  abolitioinsts  were  guilty  of  an  offence  punisha- 
ble by  common  law. 

This  part  of  the  Governor's  message,  together  with 
the  resolutions  from  the  Legislatures  of  slave-holding 
states,  was  referred  to  a  committee  of  five. 

The  Massachusetts  An ti- Slavery  Society  addressed 
a  memorial  to  this  committee,  praying  to  be  permitted 
to  appear  before  them  and  show  that  they  had  done 
nothing  but  what  they  had  a  perfect  constitutional 
right  to  do  by  the  laws  of  Massachusetts. 

On  the  Fourth  and  Eighth  of  March,  1836,  these  me- 


COMMITTEE    OF    THE    LEGISLATURE.  183 

morable  interviews  took  place  at  the  state  house,  in  the 
chamber  of  the  representatives. 

A  committee  of  some  of  the  leading  abolitionists 
attended — Mr.  I.  May,  lii.  E.  Gray  Loriug,  Mr.  Sewell, 
Dr.  FoUen,  of  Harvard  College,  and  Mr.  Garrison. 
Dr.  Channing  also  met  with  them  as  an  expression  of 
sympathy  and  to  mark  his  sense  of  the  vitally  impor- 
tant nature  of  the  transactions  to  the  rights  of  per- 
sonal liberty  in  Massachusetts. 

The  meeting  was  attended  by  many  spectators,  and 
the  abolitionists  had  opportunity  to  defend  theii'  course 
and  conduct. 

Mr.  Garrison's  speech  at  this  time  is  one  of  the  most 
energetic  and  characteristic  of  his  utterances.  After 
alluding  to  the  duty  of  all  men  to  plead  for  the  rights 
of  the  dumb  and  the  oppressed,  he  then  went  on  to 
say: 

"Mr.  Chairman,  there  is  one  aspect  of  this  great  ques- 
tion which  has  not  yet  been  presented  to  the  commit- 
tee. The  liberties  of  the  people  of  the  free  States 
are  identified  with  those  of  the  slave  population.  If 
it  were  not  so,  there  would  be  no  hope,  in  my  breast, 
of  the  peaceful  deliverance  of  the  latter  class  from 
their  bondage.  Our  liberties  are  bound  together  by 
a  ligament  as  vital  as  that  which  unites  the  Siamese 
twins.  The  blow  which  cuts  them  asunder,  will  in- 
evitably destroy  them  both.  Let  the  freedom  of  speech 
and  of  the  press  be  abridged  or  destroyed,  and  the 
nation  itself  will  be  in  bondage ;  let  it  remain  untram- 
melled, and  southern  slavery  must  speedily  come  to  an 
end."  The  chairman  of  the  committee  however  in- 
sulted the  abolitionists,  refused  them  a  fair  hearing, 
and  substantially  turned  them  out  of  the  Legislature,  to 


184  WILLIAM   LLOYD   GARRISON. 

protest  at  their  leisure.  The  Legislature  however  did 
not  pass  the  laws  demanded  by  the  South. 

Miss  Martineau,  who  visited  Boston  in  those  days, 
described  feelingly  what  she  justly  called  the  martyr 
age  in  America. 

The  abolitionists  in  Boston  at  this  time,  were  ostra- 
cized from  genteel  society.  Rank  and  fashion  cut 
them  in  the  street,  and  crossed  out  their  names  from 
visiting  lists.  Whoever  joined  them  must  expect  as  a 
matter  of  course  to  give  up  what  was  called  in  Boston, 
good  society. 

Their  houses  were  constantly  threatened  by  anony- 
mous letters,  nor  was  the  threat  a  vain  one. 

One  of  the  most  accomplished  women  of  Boston, 
whose  genius  and  beauty  and  fine  manners  won  her  a 
distinguished  position  afterwards  in  European  society, 
lives  to  remember  now,  how  her  house  was  fired  while 
she  was  still  an  invalid  in  her  chamber  with  an  infant 
daughter  only  three  weeks  old,  and  how  she  was 
obliged  to  sit  by  an  open  window  to  get  air  for  her- 
self and  infant,  from  the  smoke  that  filled  the  house 
after  the  fire  had  been  discovered  and  brought  under. 

Now  there  were  in  the  whole  North,  thousands  of 
people  who  thought  slavery  a  wrong,  an  inhumanity, 
and  who  wished  with  a  greater  or  less  degree  of  ardor 
that  it  might  cease  from  the  earth.  But  all  these  peo- 
ple were  associated  for  some  purpose  social,  moral  or 
religious,  with  people  at  the  South,  who  were  in  a  state 
of  feverish  combativeness  on  this  subject,  who  were 
accustomed  to  command  from  their  cradles,  impatient 
of  contradiction,  and  violent  in  their  passions ;  and  in 
every  way  and  form,  and  every  branch  of  life  in  state 


LOGICAL   VIGOR   OF   THE    SLAVEHOLDERS.  185 

and  church,  the  demand  was  stringent  and  imperative: 
You  shall  not  say  that  slavery  is  wrong — you  shall  not 
agitate  that  question  or  discuss  it  at  all,  and  you  shall 
join  with  us  to  discountenance  and  put  down  all  who 
endeavor  to  agitate  the  public  mind.  If  you  don't  we 
won't  have  any  thing  to  do  with  you  or  your  pur- 
poses or  schemes." 

This  was  the  language  which  kept  the  whole  North 
boiling  like  a  pot  for  years.  On  the  one  hand,  the 
force  of  conscience  and  humanity,  and  on  the  other, 
the  passionate  determined  resistance  of  the  South  ope- 
rating through  northern  men,  who,  though  disliking 
slavery  yet  had  their  various  purposes  to  carry,  for 
which  they  needed  the  help  of  the  South. 

So  even  the  religious  societies  felt  that  their  great 
moral  and  religious  work  was  so  important  that  they 
must  yield  a  little,  in  order  to  gain  the  help  of  south- 
ern Christians.  The  Tract  Society  struck  out  ft'om 
English  reprints  every  line  and  sentence  which  might 
be  supposed  to  reprove  slavery ;  the  Sunday  School 
Union  followed  suit.  The  various  religious  bodies, 
embarrassed  by  theu'  southern  wings,  spent  their  time 
in  every  annual  meeting  in  ingenious  skirmishing,  in 
which  the  main  body  sought  to  keep  the  peace  be- 
tween the  active  minority  of  abolitionists,  and  the  irri- 
tated, determined,  dictatorial  southern  brethren,  whose 
sentiments  were  exactly  expressed  by  Dr.  Plummer,  of 
Vii'gjnia : 

"If  abolitionists  will  set  the  world  in  a  blaze,  it  is 
but  fair  that  they  should  receive  the  fii'st  warming  at 
the  fire.  Let  them  understand  that  they  will  be 
caught  if  they  come  among  us,  and  they  wiU  take 
good  heed  to  keep  out  of  our  way ;  there  is  not  one 


186  WILLIAM  LLOYD   GAERISON." 

among  tliem  that  has  any  idea  of  shedding  his  blood 
for  his  cause." 

The  ministers  of  the  slaveholding  region  were  driv- 
en on  by  the  unsparing,  uncompromising  slave-owners, 
and  were  the  most  high-handed  defenders  of  the  sys- 
tem. Northern  religious  bodies,  in  order  to  carry  on 
their  purposes  in  union  with  the  South,  were  obliged 
to  make  constant  concessions  at  which  their  conscience 
revolted.  The  Methodist  church,  in  1840,  passed  a 
law  forbidding  their  colored  members  to  give  testimo- 
ny in  church  trials  in  slave  States.  The  debates  on 
this  question  are  worth  looking  back  to  now,  as  they 
give  a  dramatic  reality  to  the  great  driving,  pushing 
process  which  was  then  going  on  in  favor  of  slavery. 

A  trembling  brother,  after  voting  for  this  astounding 
prohibition,  which  took  away  the  last  hope  of  even  a 
hearing  in  Christ's  church  for  the  poor  hunted  slave — 
rose  the  day  after  he  had  helped  pass  it,  and  humbly 
and  plaintively  tried  to  get  it  taken  back. 

He  said  that  the  resolution  "  was  introduced  under 
peculiar  circumstances,  during  considerable  excite- 
ment, and  he  went  for  it  as  a  peace  offering  to  the 
Souths  without  sufficiently  reflecting  upon  the  precise 
import  of  its  phraseology,  but  after  a  little  delibera- 
tion he  was  sorry !  He  was  convinced  that  if  the  res- 
olution remained  on  the  journal,  it  would  be  disas- 
trous to  the  whole  Northern  church." 

Dr.  A.  J.  Few,  of  Georgia,  arose,  and  it  is  instruc- 
tive to  see  how  resolute  men,  who  have  made  up  their 
minds,  and  know  exactly  what  they  mean  to  do,  de- 
spise timid  men,  who  are  divided  between  policy  and 
conscience.     Dr.  Few  said: 


LOGICAL   VIGOR    OF    THE    SLAVEHOLDERS.  187 

"Look  at  it!  What  do  you  declare  to  us,  in  taking 
this  course !  Why,  simply,  as  much  as  to  say,  '  We 
cannot  sustain  you  in  the  condition  which  you  cannot 
avoid !  We  cannot  sustain  you  in  the  necessary  con- 
ditions of  slaveholding ;  one  of  its  necessary  conditions 
being  the  rejection  of  negro  testimony!'  If  it  is  not 
sinful  to  hold  slaves,  under  all  cii-cumstances,  it  is  not 
sinful  to  hold  them  in  the  only  condition^  and  under  the 
only  circumstances  in  which  they  can  he  held.  The  re- 
jection of  negro  testimony  is  one  of  the  necessary  cir- 
cumstances under  which  slaveholding  can  exist;  in- 
deed, it  is  utterly  impossible  for  it  to  exist  without  it ; 
therefore  it  is  not  sinful  to  hold  slaves  in  the  condi- 
tion and  under  the  circumstances  in  ivhich  they  are  held 
at  the  Soicth,  inasmuch  as  they  can  be  held  under  no 
other  circumstances.  *  *  *  If  you  believe  that 
slaveholding  is  necessarily  sinful,  come  out  with  the 
abolitionists,  and  honestly  say  so.  If  you  believe  that 
slaveholding  is  necessarily  sinful,  you  believe  we  are 
necessarily  sinners ;  and  if  so,  come  out  and  honestly 
declare  it,  and  let  us  leave  you.  *  *  *  We  want 
to  know  distinctly,  precisely  and  honestly  the  position 
which  you  take.  We  cannot  be  tampered  with  by 
you  any  longer.  We  have  had  enough  of  it.  We 
are  tired  of  your  sickly  sympathies.  *  *  "^^  If  you 
are  not  opposed  to  the  principles  which  it  involves, 
unite  with  us,  like  hovest  men^  and  go  home,  and 
boldly  meet  the  consequences." 

From  this  it  appears  that  the  Southern  slaveocracy 
was  not  only  a  very  united,  determined  body,  but  also 
remarkably  logical  as  to  the  necessary  ways  and  means 
which  were  essential  to  the  support  of  theii'  system,  and 


188  WILLIAM   LLOYD    GARRISON. 

tliat  not  only  tliey  were  prepared  to  go  the  whole 
length  themselves,  but  they  meant  to  have  nothing  to 
do  with  any  one  who  would  not  go  the  whole  length 
with  them. 

The  result  of  this  one  victory  was  to  split  the  Meth- 
odist church  in  two.  Mr.  Peck  was  right  in  supposing 
that  there  was  yet  enough  conscience  in  the  Northern 
Methodists  to  feel  the  impossibility  of  holding  a  book 
of  disciphne  which  called  slavery  "the  sum  of  all  vil- 
lainies," and  yet  keeping  union  with  those  who  were 
making  it  the  first  object  of  life  to  uphold  it.  Some 
such  crisis  of  conscience,  always  brought  on  by  the 
slave-driving,  dictatorial,  determined  and  logical  South, 
in  time  rent  asunder  all  the  principal  denominations 
into  a  northern  and  southern  wing.  For  however  they 
might  have  been  disposed  towards  the  policy  of  non- 
intervention, the  South  never  allowed  them  to  stand 
long  on  that  ground.  They  must  not  only  cease  to 
remonstrate  against  slavery,  but  help  them  by  con- 
senting to  positive  laws  and  measures  in  its  defence. 
So  great  was  the  power  of  this  dictatorial  spirit,  that 
when  the  New  School  Presbyterian  church  had  broken 
off  from  the  great  body  of  southern  churches,  who 
went  with  the  Old  School,  yet  the  one  or  two  synods 
who  were  left  among  them  extorted  from  the  whole 
body  the  decree  that  "masters  ought  not  to  be  disci- 
plined for  selling  slaves  without  their  consent,  even 
when  fellow  members  of  the  same  churches  with  them- 
selves." 

Now  this  history  of  what  went  on  in  the  church  of 
America — for  the  church,  meaning  by  it  all  the  relig- 


garrison's  disuxionism.  189 

ious  denominations,  did  embody  as  a  general  fact,  the 
whole  religious  and  moral  force  of  the  country,  shows 
more  strongly  than  anything  else  what  was  likely  to  be 
going  on  in  bodies  that  did  not  profess  any  moral  char- 
acter or  considerations.  If  this  was  the  state  to  which 
the  dictation  of  the  southern  slavepower  had  driven 
the  church,  what  was  to  be  hoped  of  the  political 
world  and  the  world  of  trade  ? 

Mr.  Garrison  looked  over  this  dark  field,  and  saw 
the  battle — for  there  was  a  battle  all  over  the  land — 
a  battle  in  which  the  truth  and  the  right  were  being 
steadily,  daily  and  everywhere  beaten.  The  church 
and  the  world  seemed  to  be  vieing  with  each  other 
who  could  retreat  fastest  before  their  victorious  mas- 
ters, and  every  day  some  new  right  of  humanity  was 
thrown  down  for  the  pursuing  army  to  worry  and  tear 
— -just  as  retreating  fugitives  throw  back  a  lamb  or  a 
dog  to  stop  a  pack  of  hungry  wolves. 

Garrison  saw  at  once  that  the  root  of  all  this  defeat 
and  disaster  was  the  desire  of  union  with  slaveholders, 
and  forthwith  he  unfurled  his  banner  and  sounded  his 
trumpet  to  the  watchword,  no  union  with  slave- 
holders. 

Immediately  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States 
was  brought  up  before  him.  Does  not  the  constitu- 
tion form  a  union  with  slaveholders  ?  Has  it  not  ex- 
press compromises  designed  to  protect  slave  property  ? 
Is  not  the  basis  of  representation  throughout  all  the 
southern  states  made  on  three-fifths  of  a  slave  popula- 
tion ?     Now  ]Mr.  Garrison,  what  do  you  say  to  that  ? 

"What  I  say,"  said  Garrison,  "is,  that  slavery  is  a 
sin  against  -God  and  man,  and  if  the  constitution  of 


190  WILLIAM   LLOYD   GARRISON. 

the  United  States  does  agree  to  defend  and  protect  it, 
it  is  a  sinful  league,  and  it  is  a  covenant  with  death, 
and  an  agreement  with  hell,"  and  out  came  the  Libe- 
rator with  the  solemn  curses  of  the  old  prophets  at  its 
head,  and  the  Garrisonian  abolitionists  organized 
themselves  on  the  principle  that  they  would  hold  no 
union  with  slaveholders  in  church  or  in  state,  they  would 
belong  to  no  religious  or  secular  body  which  did  not 
treat  slavery  as  a  «in  against  God,  and  they  would  lift 
up  their  testimony  against  every  person,  party  or  de- 
nomination in  church  or  in  state  that  made  any  con- 
cession to  the  slaveholding  power,  for  the  sake  of  ac- 
complishing any  purpose  whatsoever. 

Here  we  see  the  whole  scope  of  subject-matter  for 
the  Liberator^  and  for  all  the  lectures  and  speeches 
from  the  platforms  of  the  Garrisonian  abolition  socie- 
ties for  years  and  years.  For  as  there  was  scarcely  a 
thing  in  society  in  those  days  that  was  not  the  joint 
work  of  the  North  and  the  South,  and  as  the  South 
7iever  made  a  concession,  of  course  there  was  through 
all  the  various  ramifications  of  political,  social  and  re- 
ligious life,  a  continued  series  of  concessions  on  the 
part  of  the  North,  These  concessions  were  always, 
everywhere  unsparingly  discussed,  reproved  and  de- 
nounced by  the  Garrisonians,  and  so  there  was  contro- 
versy constantly  and  everywhere. 

The  ministry  of  New  England,  from  the  days  of 
President  Edwards,  had  adopted  a  peculiar  and  pun- 
gent style  of  preaching  immediate  repentance  of  sin. 
They  repudiated  all  half  efforts,  insensible  approaches, 
dream-like  floatings  toward  right,  and  narrowed  the 
question  of  individual  responsibility  down  to  the  pres- 


DENOUNCES  THE  CHURCH.  191 

ent  moment,  and  urged  repentance  on  the  spot  as  tlie 
duty  of  all.  Garrison  had  received  his  early  education 
in  this  school,  and  he  drove  his  preaching  of  immedi- 
ate repentance  for  the  sin  of  slavery,  his  requirements 
for  an  instant  clearing  of  the  soul  from  all  complicity 
with  it,  with  the  solemnity  of  an  old  Puritan.  He 
had  the  whole  language  of  the  Old  Testament  at  his 
tongue's  end,  and  a  text  from  the  old  prophets  ready 
like  an  arrow  on  a  bow-string,  to  shoot  into  every 
loop-hole  of  the  concessions  and  compromises  that 
were  constantly  going  on.  He  reproved  without  fear 
or  favor,  ministers,  elders.  Christians,  statesmen,  gov- 
ernors, authors,  and  denounced  the  whole  church  as 
contaminated  by  the  sanction  and  support  it  gave  to 
the  accursed  thing. 

He  was  denounced  in  turn  by  the  church  as  an  infi- 
del and  an  opposer  of  religion,  but  he  persisted  in 
hurling  right  and  left  the  stern  denunciations  of  the 
Old  Testament:  "When  thou  sawest  a  thief,  thou  con- 
sentedst  with  him — thou  hast  been  partaker  with  adul- 
terers," and  he  declared  that  the  visible  union  of 
church  and  state  with  an  organization  which  practiced 
systematic  robbery  on  four  millions  of  human  beings, 
and  made  legal  marriage  among  them  an  impossibility, 
was  in  the  very  highest  sense  consenting  with  thieves, 
and  being  made  partakers  with  adultery. 

There  is  not  the  least  doubt  that  the  course  of  entire 
separation  from  slaveholders  in  church  and  state,  would 
have  been  a  perfect  and  eflBcient  stop  to  the  evil,  could 
it  have  been  compassed.  Could  we  once  imagine  a 
state  of  things  in  which  every  man  and  woman  in  the 
United  States  who  admitted  that  slavery  was  an  injust- 


192  WILLIAM   LLOYD    GARRISON. 

ice,  should  come  to  tlie  point  of  refusing  all  fellow- 
ship or  connection  with  it,  either  in  church  or  state, 
or  in  any  of  the  traffic  or  intercourse  of  life,  we  should 
imao-ine  a  state  in  which  there  would  have  been  imme- 
diately  a  majority  which  could  have  revised  the  con- 
stitution of  the  United  States,  and  cast  out  the  offens- 
ive clauses,  as  has  since  been  done. 

But  measures  so  stringent  and  thorough,  supposed 
an  education  of  the  public  conscience  which  had  not 
yet  taken  place,  and  the  Garrisonian  Abolitionists 
therefore  were  always  a  small  minority,  extremely  un- 
fashionable and  every  where  spoken  against.  Small  as 
they  were,  they  were  the  indispensables  of  the  great  con- 
flict— its  very  heart.  Garrison  and  his  band  of  coadju- 
tors formed  a  steady  force  which  acted  night  and  day 
with  unvarying  consistency.  While  everybody  else  in 
the  United  States  had  something  else  to  conserve,  some 
side  issues  to  make,  some  other  point  to  carry,  Garri- 
son and  his  band  had  but  one  thing  to  say — that  Amer- 
ican slavery  is  a  sin  ;  but  one  thing  to  do — to  preach 
immediate  repentance,  and  forsaking  of  sin.  They 
withdrew  from  every  organization  which  could  in  any 
way  be  supposed  to  tolerate  or  hold  communion  with 
it,  and  walked  alone,  a  small,  but  always  active  and 
powerful  body.  They  represented  the  pure,  abstract 
form  of  every  principle  as  near  as  it  is  possible  for  it 
to  be  represented  by  human  frailty.  Free  speech,  free 
inquiry  and  freedom  of  conscience  found  perfect  ex- 
pression in  their  meetings,  and  the  Liberator  was  the 
one  paper  in  which  any  honest,  well-meaning  person 
might  print  any  conscientious  opinion,  however  con- 
trary to  those  generally  received  in  society.    Of  course 


THE   southerners'    OWN   TESTIMONY.  193 

it  became  the  channel  for  much  crude  thought,  for 
much  startling  and  strange  expression ;  and  its  circula- 
tion was  confined  almost  entirely  to  the  small  party 
whose  opinions  it  expressed.  A  large  portion  of  the 
Liberator  was  every  week  devoted  to  extracts  cut 
from  southern  papers,  giving  a  vivid  picture  of  the 
barbaric  state  of  society,  produced  by  slavery.  Here, 
without  note  or  comment,  came  the  accounts  clipped 
from  different  southern  papers,  of  the  assaults,  frays 
and  murders  daily  perpetrated  by  white  men  on  each 
other  in  a  land  where  violence  was  ever  above  law. 
There  were,  too,  the  advertisements  of  slave  auctions 
and  runaway  negroes ;  of  blood-hounds  kept  for  hu- 
man hunting ;  while  in  a  weekly  corner  called  the 
"  Refuge  of  Oppression,"  all  the  violent  doctrines  of 
the  most  rabid  slave  holders  found  every  week  a  faith- 
ful reproduction  in  their  own  language.  For  an  exact 
picture  of  the  image  and  body  of  the  most  extreme 
form  of  southern  slave  holding  and  its  results  on  socie- 
ty, the  Liberator  was  as  perfect  a  moral  daguerreotype 
as  could  be  produced.. 

A  solemn  instance  of  the  terrible  sequence  of  Divine 
retribution  has  been  presented  to  this  generation  which 
will  not  soon  be  forgotten.  All  this  disgusting,  har- 
rowing, dreadful  record  of  cruelty,  crime  and  oppres- 
sion which  the  Liberator  went  on,  year  after  year,  in 
vain  holding  up  to  the  inspection  of  the  North,  as  be- 
ing perpetrated  within  the  bounds  of  slaveholding 
society,  was  shrunk  from  as  too  dreadful  and  disgust- 
ing to  be  contemplated. 

"We  do  not  wish  to  have  our  feelings  harrowed; 
we  do  not  wish  to  be  appalled  and  disgusted  with  rec- 


194  WILLIAM   LLOYD   GARRISON. 

ords  of  cruelty  and  crime,"  was  the  almost  universal 
voice  of  good  society  at  the  North,  as  they  went  stead- 
ily on,  compromising  with  and  yielding  to  the  exac- 
tions of  a  barbarous  oligarchy.  God  so  ordered  it  in 
return,  that  the  cup  of  trembling  which  had  so  long 
been  drunk  by  the  slave  alone,  should  be  put  into  the 
hands  of  thousands  of  the  sons  and  daughters  of  the 
free  North.  Thousands  of  them  were  starved,  tortured, 
insulted,  hunted  by  dogs,  separated  from  home  and 
friends,  and  left  to  linger  out  a  cruel  death  in  life, 
through  the  barbarity  of  those  very  slaveholders,  with 
whose  sins  we  had  connived,  with  whose  cruelties 
practiced  on  the  helpless  negroes  we  had  refused  to 
interfere.  So  awful  a  lesson  of  the  justice  of  a  living 
God  we  trust  will  never  be  forgotten.  If  every  north- 
ern  man  and  woman  had  from  the  very  first  been  as 
careful  in  regarding  the  rights  of  the  slave,  as  deter- 
mined to  hold  no  fellowship  with  evil  as  Garrison,  the 
solution  of  our  great  national  question  might  have 
been  a  far  more  peaceful  one. 

In  the  days  of  the  great  conflict,  Mr.  Garrison  was 
accused  of  being  in  a  bad  spirit,  of  the  utterance  of 
violent,  angry  and  abusive  language.  A  very  mistak- 
en idea  of  his  personal  character,  in  fact,  went  abroad 
in  the  world. 

In  his  personal  intercourse  he  is  peculiarly  bland 
and  urbane,  one  of  the  few  men  capable  of  conduct- 
ing an  argument  on  the  most  interesting  subject  with- 
out the  slightest  apparent  excitement  of  voice  or  man- 
ner, allowing  his  adversary  every  polite  advantage 
and  admitting  all  his  just  statements  with  perfect  fair- 
ness.    It  is  said  that  a  fiery  young  southerner  once  fell 


mS   STEADY   NERVES.  195 

into  a  discussion  on  slavery  with  hini  when  he  was 
travelling  incog.,  on  board  a  steamboat.  Garrison 
quite  won  his  heart  by  the  fairness  and  courtesy  with 
which  he  discussed  the  subject,  and  brought  him  to 
admissions  which  the  frank  southerner  in  a  good  hu- 
mor was  quite  willing  to  make.  On  parting  he  said  to 
him,  "  If  that  Garrison  there  in  Boston  were  only  like 
you,  we  should  be  more  ready  to  listen  to  him." 

A  great  deal  of  this  amiability  doubtless  is  owing  to 
the  singular  steadiness  and  healthiness  of  Garrison's 
nervous  system.  In  this  he  was  one  of  the  most  pecu- 
liarly constituted  men,  in  whom  nature  ever  combined 
traits  expressly  for  a  great  work.  All  his  personal 
habits  are  those  of  a  methodical  unexcitable  man,  and 
not  in  the  least  like  the  hurry  and  enthusiasm  of  a  fanatic. 
He  is  methodical,  systematic  and  precise  in  all  his  ar- 
rangements, neat  and  careful  in  respect  to  the  minutest 
trifle. 

His  handwriting  is  always  of  the  finished  complete- 
ness of  a  writing  master,  and  in  the  most  vehement  de- 
nunciations, not  a  letter  was  ever  misplaced  or  a  com- 
ma or  exclamation  point,  omitted.  Every  thing  he 
ever  wrote  was  perfected  for  the  press  as  it  left  his 
pen.  Such  habits  as  these  speak  a  composed  and  equa- 
ble nervous  system.  In  fact.  Garrison's  nerves  never 
knew  what  it  was  to  shiver  and  vibrate  either  with 
irritation  or  with  fear.  He  is  gifted  with  the  most  per- 
fect imperturbable  cheerfulness,  which  no  outward  dis- 
composure seems  to  have  any  power  to  shake. 

His  politely  bowing  to  the  furious  Boston  mob  be- 
fore descending  to  put  himself  in  their  hands,  is  a  very 
characteristic  thing,  and  during  all  the  tossings  and 


196  WILLIAM   LLOYD    GARRISON. 

tumults  of  tlie  hour  that  followed,  Garrison  was  prob- 
ably the  serenest  person  that  ever  had  his  clothes  torn 
off  his  back  for  expressing  his  opinions. 

That  language  in  the  Liberator  which  looked  to  the 
world  as  if  it  must  have  been  uttered  in  a  passion,  be- 
cause it  was  so  far  above  the  usual  earnestness  of  ex- 
pression on  such  subjects,  was  in  his  case  the  result  of 
a  deliberate  system. 

Garrison  said  that  the  world  blinded  conscience  and 
made  false  issues  with  itself  by  the  habitual  call- 
ing of  things  by  the  wrong  names ;  that  there  was  no 
kind  of  vice  which  might  not  be  disguised  under  a 
polite  phrase.  Theft  might  be  spoken  of  as  an  ingen- 
ious transfer  of  property — adultery  as  a  form  of  the 
elective  affinity,  and  so  on,  but  that  all  such  phraseol- 
ogy had  an  irpmoral  tendency. 

In  like  manner  the  stealino-  of  men  and  women  from 
Africa — the  systematic  appropriation  of  all  the  fruits 
of  their  industry  and  labor — was  robbery.  Whoever 
did  this  was  a  thief 

Garrison  called  slaveholders,  no  matter  of  what  rank 
in  society,  of  what  personal  amiabilities  andvu'tues,  man- 
thieves.  Whoever  formed  union  with  slaveholders, 
united  with  man-thieves,  and  as  the  partaker  in 
law  is  judged  as  being  a  thief,  those  who  united  with 
man-thieves  became  themselves  thieves. 

Having  reasoned  this  out  logically,  Garrison  steadily 
and  systematically  applied  these  terms  wherever  he 
thought  they  applied.  The  Garrisonian  tract,  "  The 
church  a  den  of  thieves,"  is  a  specimen  of  this  kind 
of  logic,  and  this  unsparing  use  of  terms.  Whatever 
may  be  thought  of  the  justice  of  such  reasoning  or  the 


THINGS   BY   THEIR   RIGHT   NAMES.  197 

propriety  of  such  logical  application  of  terms,  we  still 
wish  the  fact  to  stand  out  clear,  that  these  denuncia- 
tions were  not  boiled  up  by  heated  passions,  but  rea- 
soned out  by  logic,  and  that  it  was  a  part  of  a  syste- 
matic j)lan  to  bring  back  the  moral  sense  of  society 
by  a  habit  of  calling  things  by  discriminating  names. 
Thus  in  the  Liberator  every  agent  of  the  United  States 
who  helped  to  catch  and  return  a  slave  was  always 
spoken  of  as  a  kidnapper — all  defences  of  the  fugi- 
tive slave  law  were  familiarly  denominated  defences  of 
kidnapping.  Theodore  Parker,  in  his  sermons  about 
the  time  of  the  fugitive  slave  law,  makes  very  effec- 
tive use  of  these  terms,  and  it  is  not  to  be  denied  that 
the  habit  of  thus  constantly  using  language  which  in 
a  word  makes  a  moral  discrimination  is  a  very  power- 
ful influence  in  forming  popular  opinion. 

People  will  boggle  a  great  while  about  fulfilling 
constitutional  obligation  when  catching  a  slave  is  put 
in  those  terms,  but  when  it  is  put  as  "  kidnapping," 
the  question  becomes  far  more  direct  and  simple.  The 
Garrisonians  doubtless  were  philosophical  in  the  pre- 
cision of  the  moral  nomenclature  they  adopted,  and 
their  success  in  stimulating  drugged  and  paralyzed 
moral  sentiment  was  largely  owing  to  it. 

To  be  sure,  in  the  application  of  wholesale  moral 
syllogism  to  particular  individual  cases,  there  was 
often  something  that  appeared  extremely  hard  and 
unjust  to  the  individual.  When  an  amiable  northern 
Doctor  of  Divinity,  who  never  owned  a  slave  in  his 
life  and  never  expected  to,  found  himself  cited  in  the 
Liberator  by  the  familiar  designation  of  a  man-thief, 
because  he  -had  been  in  the  General  Assembly,  good 


198  WILT  J  AM   LLOYD   GAKRISON. 

naturedly  uniting  with  a  large  body  of  soutliern  slave- 
holders in  suppressing  all  inquiry  into  their  great  sys- 
tematic robbery,  the  northern  Doctor  was  naturally 
indie:nant  and  so  were  all  his  friends  and  adherents. 

To  be  sure  it  was  only  a  skillful  turning  of  that  syl- 
logistic crank  by  which  New  England  theology  demon- 
strated that  every  individual  not  conscious  of  a  certain 
moral  change  of  heart,  was  a  malignant  enemy  of  God, 
and  had  not  a  spark  of  moral  excellence  of  any  kind, 
no  matter  what  sort  of  a  man  he  might  be,  or  what 
moral  virtues  he  might  practice. 

GaiTison  simply  reversed  the  crank  and  turned  this 
unsparing  kind  of  logic  back  on  the  church  and  clergy, 
who  felt  some  of  the  surprise  and  pain  of  the  eagle  in 
the  fable  who  found  himself  shot  through  by  an  arrow 
feathered  from  his  own  wing ;  and  in  both  cases  it  may 
be  doubted  whether  great  moral  syllogisms  do  not 
involve  many  instances  of  individual  and  personal  in- 
justice. 

But  it  is  best  to  let  Garrison  state  his  own  case  as 
he  did  in  the  Liberator : 

"I  am  accused  of  using  hard  language.  I  admit  the 
charge.  I  have  not  been  able  to  find  a  soft  word  to 
describe  villainy,  or  to  identify  the  perpetrator  of  it. 
The  man  who  makes  a  chattel  of  his  brother — w^hat  is 
he  ?  The  man  who  keeps  back  the  hire  of  his  labor- 
ers by  fraud — what  is  he  ?  They  who  prohibit  the 
circulation  of  the  Bible — what  are  they  ?  They  who 
compel  three  millions  of  men  and  women  to  herd  to- 
gether, like  brute  beasts — what  are  they  ?  They  who 
sell  mothers  by  the  pound,  and  children  in  lots  to  suit 
purchasers — what  are  they  ?     I  care  not  what  terms 


ABOLITIOXIST     "HARD   LANGUAGE.  199 

are  applied  to  them,  provided  they  do  apply.  If  they 
are  not  thieves,  if  they  are  not  tyrants,  if  they  are  not 
men-stealers,  I  should  like  to  know  what  is  their  true 
character,  and  by  what  names  they  may  be  called.  It 
is  as  mild  an  epithet  to  say  that  a  thief  is  a  thief,  as  it 
is  to  say  that  a  spade  is  a  spade. 

"The  anti-slavery  cause  is  beset  with  many  dangers ; 
but  there  is  one  which  we  have  special  reason  to  ap- 
prehend. It  is  that  this  hollow  cant  about  hard  lan- 
guage will  insensibly  check  the  free  utterance  of 
thought  and  close  application  of  truth  which  have 
characterized  abolitionists  from  the  beginning.  As 
that  cause  is  becoming  popular,  and  many  may  be  in- 
duced to  espouse  it  from  motives  of  policy  rather  than 
from  reverence  for  principle,'  let  us  beware  how  we 
soften  our  just  severity  of  speech,  or  emasculate  a 
single  epithet.  The  whole  scope  of  the  English  lan- 
guage is  inadequate  to  describe  the  horrors  and  impu- 
rities of  slavery.  Instead  therefore,  of  repudiating 
any  of  its  strong  terms,  we  rather  need  a  new  and 
stronger  dialect. 

****** 

"The  cry  of  hard  language  has  become  stale  in  my 
ears.  The  faithful  utterance  of  that  language  has,  by 
the  blessing  of  God,  made  the  anti-slavery  cause  what 
it  is,  ample  in  resources,  strong  in  numbers,  victorious 
in  conflict.  *  ^  *  goft  phrases  and  honeyed  ac- 
cents were  tried  in  vain  lor  many  a  year ; — they  had 
no  adaptation  to  the  subject.  'Canst  thou  draw  out 
the  leviathan.  Slavery,  with  a  hook?  or  his  tongue 
with  a  cord  which  thou  lettest  down  ?  Canst  thou  put 
a  hook  into  his  nose  ?  or  bore  his  jaw  thi'ough  with  a 


200  WILLIAM   LLOYD    GAKRISON. 

thorn  ?  Will  he  make  many  supplications  unto  thee  ? 
wilt  thou  take  him  for  a  servant  forever  ?  Shall  not 
one  be  cast  down  at  the  sight  of  him  ?  Out  of  his 
nostrils  goeth  smoke,  as  out  of  a  seething  pot  or  cald- 
ron. His  breath  kindleth  coals,  and  a  flame  goeth  out 
of  his  mouth.  His  heart  is  as  firm  as  a  stone  ;  yea,  as 
hard  as  a  piece  of  the  nether  mill-stone.  When  he 
raiseth  up  himself,  even  the  mighty  are  afraid.  He 
esteemeth  iron  as  straw,  and  brass  as  rotten  wood.' 
0,  the  surpassing  folly  of  those  'wise  and  j)rudent' 
men,  who  think  he  may  be  coaxed  into  a  willingness 
to  be  destroyed,  and  who  regard  him  as  the  gentlest 
of  all  fish — provided  he  be  let  alone !  They  say  it 
will  irritate  him  to  charge  him  with  being  a  leviathan  ; 
he  will  cause  the  deep  to'  boil  like  a  pot.  Call  him  a 
dolphin^  and  he  will  not  get  angry !  If  I  should  call 
these  sage  advisers  by  their  proper  names,  no  doubt 
they  would  be  irritated  too." 

The  era  of  mob  violence,  which  swept  over  the 
country  in  consequence  of  the  anti-slavery  agitation, 
led  to  a  discussion  of  the  peace  question,  in  which 
Garrison  took  an  earnest  part  as  a  champion  of  the 
principles  of  non-resistance,  and  in  1838  he  led  the 
way  in  organizing  the  New  England  Non-Resistance 
Society,  whose  declaration  of  sentiments  was  prepared 
by  him.  The  active  part  taken  by  the  women  of  the 
country  in  these  moral  changes,  led  to  a  discussion  of 
the  rights  of  women.  Mr.  Garrison  was  at  once  an 
advocate  for  the  principle  that  women  should  be  al- 
lowed liberty  to  do  whatever  God  and  nature  qualified 
them  to  do — to  vote,  to  serve  on  committees,  and  to 
take  part  in  discussions  on  equal  terms  with  the  other 


PROTEST    FOR   WOMEN's   RIGHTS.  201 

sex.  Upon  this  principle  there  was  a  division  in  the 
Anti-Slavery  Society  in  1840;  and  in  the  World's 
Anti- Slavery  Convention,  held  that  year  in  London, 
Mr.  Garrison,  being  delegate  from  that  society,  re- 
fused to  take  his  seat  because  the  female  delegates 
from  the  United  States  were  excluded.  Probably  no 
act  of  Mr.  Garrison's  eventful  life  was  a  more  difficult 
and  triumphant  exercise  of  consistent  principle  than 
this. 

He  had  come  over  to  England  for  sympathy,  for  at 
home  he  was  despised,  and  rejected,  and  hated,  and 
Exeter  Hall  was  filled  with  an  applauding,  tumult- 
nous  crowd,  ready  to  make  him  the  lion  of  the  hour, 
but  not  ready  to  receive  his  female  coadjutors. 

As  usual,  Mr.  Garrison  conferred  not  with  flesh  and 
blood  for  a  moment,  but  rose,  bade  farewell  to  the 
society,  and  leaving  his  protest,  walked  out  serenely 
through  the  crowd,  and  thus  sealed  his  protest  in  favor 
of  the  equal  rights  of  woman. 

The  consideration  that  he  thus  renounced  an  over- 
whelming public  sympathy,  and  cut  himself  loose  from 
the  patronage  of  all  good  society  in  England,  could 
not  weigh  a  moment  with  him  in  comparison  with  a 
principle,  and  the  doctrine  of  the  moral,  social  and 
political  equality  of  woman  may  be  said  to  have  found 
in  Garrison  its  first  public  champion. 

The  question  now  arises :  If  Garrison  and  his  little 
band  were  indeed  morally  right  in  their  position — No 
union  ivith  slave-holders^  on  what  ground  did  the 
whole  valiant  anti-slavery  corps  proceed  who  did  not 
come  out  from  the  church  or  the  state,  but  saw  their 


202  WILLIAM   LLOYD    GARRISON. 

way  clear  to  remain   in  existing   organizations,   and 
fight  in  and  by  them. 

The  free  soil  party  of  the  political  abolitionists  gen- 
erally were  headed  by  men  of  pure  and  vital  moral 
sense,  who  believed  just  as  sincerely  as  Mr.  Garrison 
that  slavery  was  a  wrong  and  an  injustice.  How  then 
could  they  avoid  the  inference  that  they  could  have 
no  union  with  slave-holders  ?  The  statement  of  this 
ground  properly  belongs  to  the  biographical  sketches 
of  Charles  Sumner  and  Henry  Wilson,  which  will  im- 
mediately follow  this. 

The  Garrisonians,  and  Mr.  Garrison  at  their  head, 
had  so  perfect  an  instinct  in  their  cause  that  they 
always  could  feel  when  a  party  was  at  heart  morally 
sincere  and  in  earnest.  So,  though  they  always  most 
freely  and  most  profusely  criticised  the  works  and 
ways  of  the  political  abolitionists,  they  were  on  the 
whole  on  excellent  terms  with  them. 

They  had  gotten  up  such  a  name  for  speaking  just 
their  minds  of  every  body  and  thing,  that  their  priv- 
ilege of  criticism  came  to  be  allowed  freely,  and  on 
the  whole  the  little  band  was  thought  by  the  larger 
one  to  do  good  political  work  by  their  more  strictly 
and  purely  moral  appeals  to  the  conscience  of  the 
community.  Where  there  had  been  pretty  active 
Garrisonian  labor  in  lecturing,  came  in  the  largest  po- 
litical vote. 

It  is  but  justice  to  say  that  Mr.  Garrison's  conduct 
throughout  his  course  demonstrated  that  it  was  not  a 
constitutional  love  of  opposition,  or  a  delight  in  fault- 
finding which  inspired  his  denunciations  of  slavery 
and  of  the  Union  as   the   defence  of  slavery.     For 


THE   TRIUMPH    OF    HIS   CAUSE.  203 

from  the  time  of  the  Emancipation  Proclamation,  Gar- 
rison became  a  warm,  enthusiastic  Unionist.  When 
the  United  States  flag,  cleansed  of  all  stain  of  slavery, 
was  once  more  erected  on  Fort  Sumter,  Garrison 
made  the  voyage  down  to  testify  by  his  presence  at  the 
scene  his  devotion  and  loyalty  to  the  flag  of  his  coun- 
try. 

Garrison's  non-resistant  principles  did  not  allow  him 
to  take  any  active  part  in  the  war.  But  in  the  same 
manner  they  caused  him  to  allow  perfect  and  free  tol- 
eration to  such  of  his  sons  as  desired  to  enter  the 
army.  The  right  of  individual  judgment  in  every 
human  being  was  always  sacred  with  him,  and  the 
military  command  which  took  possession  of  Charleston 
had  among  its  officers  a  son  of  \Mlliam  Lloyd  Garri- 
son. 

The  scene  in  the  Boston  Music  Hall,  on  the  1st  of 
January,  1864,  when  the  telegraphic  dispatch  of  the 
Emancipation  Proclamation  was  received  by  an  enthu- 
siastic concourse  of  citizens,  and  welcomed  by  the  first 
literary  talent  of  Boston,  was  one  of  those  occurrences 
of  the  visible  triumph  of  good  men  in  their  day  and 
generation,  of  which  the  slavery  conflict  gives  many 
instances. 

This  scene  was  in  all  respects  a  remarkable  one,  as 
marking  the  moral  progress  of  Boston,  but  in  order  to 
feel  its  full  power  we  must  again  run  our  eye  over  the 
events  of  the  past  few  years,  of  which  it  was  the  out- 
come. 

It  was  only  thirty-four  years  since  the  Legislature 
of  Georgia  had  passed  an  act  signed  by  Gov.  Lump- 
kin, offering  the  sum  of  five  thousand  dollars  for  who- 


204  WILLIAM   LLOYD    GARRISON. 

ever  would  bring  into  the  State  of  Georgia  the  per- 
son of  William  Lloyd  Garrison,  there  to  answer  to  the 
laws  of  Georgia  for  the  publication  of  the  Liberator — 
an  "incendiary  sheet."  Everybody  knew  that  this 
proclamation  meant  a  short  shrift  and  a  long  rope  to 
Garrison,  but  there  was  at  that  time  no  counter  move- 
ment on  the  part  of  his  own  State  for  his  protection, 
no  official  declaration  on  the  part  of  the  Massachusetts 
Legislature  to  certify  that  she  considered  offering  re- 
wards for  the  kidnapping  of  her  citizens  to  be  a  viola- 
tion of  State  rights.  In  fact,  so  completely  was  Gar- 
rison, thus  threatened  by  the  South,  unprotected  by 
law  and  public  sentiment  at  the  North,  that  five  years 
later,  when  the  outcry  from  slaveholding  legislatures 
became  stronger,  a  Massachusetts  Governor  actually 
recommended  imposing  pains  and  penalties  on  the 
abolitionists  for  the  discussion  of  the  subject,  and  the 
Legislature  actually  took  into  discussion  the  propriety 
of  doing  so. 

Was  ever  thirty  years  productive  of  a  greater  moral 
change  than  this  1st  of  January,  1864,  witnessed? 

An  assemblage  of  all  that  Boston  had  to  show  of 
intellect,  scholarship,  art,  rank  and  fashion,  all  came 
together  of  one  accord  to  one  place  to  celebrate  the 
triumph  of  those  great  principles  for  which  Garrison 
had  once  been  dragged  with  a  rope  ignominiously 
through  the  streets  of  Boston. 

Now  that  serene  head,  with  its  benevolent  calmness, 
rising  in  one  of  the  most  conspicuous  and  honored 
seats  in  the  house,  was  the  observed  of  all  observers. 
The  hisses  of  mob  violence,  the  scoffs  and  sneers,  had 
changed  to  whispered   tributes  all   over  the  house, 


THE   TRIUMPH    OF   HIS   CAUSE.  205 

"There  he  is,  look!"  and  mothers  pointed  him.  to 
their  children.  "There  is  the  good  man  who  had  the 
courage  to  begin  this  glorious  work,  years  ago!" 

Of  Garrison's  appearance  at  this  time,  it  is  sufficient 
to  say  that  it  was  no  more  nor  less  serene  and  un- 
troubled than  when  he  stood  amid  the  hisses  of  the 
mob  in  Faneuil  Hall.  He  had  always  believed  in  this 
victory  as  steadfastly  in  the  beginning  as  in  the  end, 
for  God,  who  makes  all  his  instruments  for  his  own 
purposes,  had  given  him  in  the  outset  that  "faith 
which  is  the  substance  of  things  hoped  for,  and  the 
evidence  of  things  not  seen,"  and  to  God  alone,  with- 
out a  thought  of  self,  did  he  ascribe  the  glory. 

On  the  1st  of  January,  1865,  Mr.  Garrison  having 
finished  the  work  for  which  the  Liberator  was  estab- 
lished in  Boston,  came  out  with  his  last  editorial  an- 
nouncing the  discontinuing  of  that  paper.     He  says : 

"The  object  for  which  the  Liberator  was  commenc- 
ed— the  extermination  of  chattel  slavery — having 
been  gloriously  consummated,  it  seems  to  me  specially 
appropriate  to  let  its  existence  cover  the  historic  peri- 
od of  the  great  struggle ;  leaving  what  remains  to  be 
done  to  complete  the  work  of  emancipation  to  other 
instrumentalities,  (of  which  I  hope  to  avail  myself,) 
under  ffew  auspices,  with  more  abundant  means  and 
with  millions  instead  of  hundreds  for  allies. 

"Most  happy  am  I  to  be  no  longer  in  conflict  with 
the  mass  of  my  fellow-countrymen  on  the  subject  of 
slavery.  For  no  man  of  any  refinement  or  sensibility 
can  be  indifferent  to  the  approbation  of  his  fellow- 
men,  if  it  be  rightly  earned.  But  to  obtain  it  by  go- 
ing with  the  multitude  to  do  evil,  is  self-degradation 


206  WILLIAM   LLOYD    GARRISON. 

and  personal  dishonor.  Better  to  be  always  in  a  mi- 
nority of  one  with  God — branded  as  a  madman,  incen- 
diary, fanatic,  heretic,  infidel — frowned  upon  by  the 
powers  that  be,  and  mobbed  by  the  populace — or 
consigned  ignominiously  to  the  gallows,  like  him 
whose  'soul  is  marching  on,'  though  his  'body  lies 
mouldering  in  the  grave,'  or  burnt  to  ashes  at  the 
stake,  like  Wicklifife,  or  nailed  to  the  cross,  like  Him 
who  'gave  himself  for  the  world,'  in  defence  of  the 
RIGHT,  than  like  Herod,  having  the  shouts  of  the  mul- 
titude crying,  '  It  is  the  voice  of  a  god,  and  not  of  a 
man! ' 

"Commencing  my  editorial  career  when  only  twenty 
years  of  age,  I  have  followed  it  continuously  till  I  have 
attained  my  sixtieth  year — first  in  connection  with  The 
Free  Press^  in  Newburyport,  in  the  spring  of  1826; 
next,  with  The  National  Philanthropist^  in  Boston,  in 
1827  ;  next,  with  The  Journal  of  the  Times^  in  Ben- 
nington, Vt,  in  1828-9 ;  next,  with  The  Genius  of 
Universal  Emancipation^  in  Baltimore,  in  1829-30;  and 
finally,  with  the  Liberator^  in  Boston,  from  the  1st  of 
January,  1831,  to  the  1st  of  January,  1866, — at  the 
start,  probably  the  youngest  member  of  the  editorial 
fraternity  in  the  land,  now,  perhaps,  the  oldest,  not  in 
years,  but  in  continuous  service, — unless  Mr.  Bryant, 
of  the  New  York  Evening  Post^  be  an  exception. 

"  Whether  I  shall  again  be  connected  with  the  press, 
in  a  similar  capacity,  is  quite  problematical ;  but  at  my 
period  of  life,  I  feel  no  prompting  to  start  a  new  jour- 
nal at  my  own  risk,  and  with  the  certainty  of  strug- 
gling against  wind  and  tide,  as  I  have  done  in  the 
past. 


THE   LIBERATOR    "DISCONTINUED.  207 

*'I  began  the  publication  of  the  Liberator  witlioiit  a 
subscriber,  and  I  end  it — it  gives  me  unalloyed  satis- 
faction to  say — without  a  farthing  as  the  pecuniary  re- 
sult of  the  patronage  extended  to  it  during  thirty- 
five  years  of  unremitted  labors. 

"  From  the  immense  change  wrought  in  the  national 

feeling  and  sentiment  on  the  subject  of  slavery,  the 

Liberator  derived  no  advantage  at  any  time  in  regard 

to  its  circulation. 
******* 

"Farewell,  tried  and  faithful  patrons !  Farewell,  gen- 
erous benefactors,  without  whose  voluntary  but  essen- 
tial pecuniary  contributions  the  Liberator  must  have 
long  since  been  discontinued  !  Farewell,  noble  men 
and  women  who  have  wrought  so  long  and  so  suc- 
cessfully, under  God,  to  break  every  yoke !  Hail,  ye 
ransomed  millions  !  Hail,  year  of  jubilee  !  With  a 
grateful  heart  and  a  fresh  baptism  of  the  soul,  my  last 
invocation  shall  be — 

'  Spirit  of  Freodom  !  on — 

Oh  !  pause  not  in  thy  flight 
Till  every  clirae  is  won, 

To  worship  in  thy  light : 
Speed  on  thy  glorious  way, 

And  wake  the  sleeping  lands  ! 
Millions  are  watching  for  the  ray, 

Aad  lift  to  thee  their  hands. 
Still  '  Onward ! '  be  thy  cry — 

Thy  banner  on  the  blast ; 
And  as  thou  rushest  by, 

Despots  shall  .shrink  aghast. 
On  !  till  thy  name  is  known 

Throughout  the  peopled  earth  ; 

14 


208  WILLLiM   LLOYD    GARRISON. 

On  !  till  thou  reign'st  alone, 
Man's  heritage  by  birth  ; 
On !  till  from  every  vale,  and  where  the  mountains  rise, 
The  beacon  lights  of  Liberty  shall  kindle  to  the  skies  ! ' 

WM.  LLOYD  GARRISON." 

There  were  those  in  the  party  of  the  Garrisonian 
Abolitionists  whose  course  at  this  time  seemed  to  jus- 
tify the  popular  impression  that  faultfinding  had  so 
long  been  their  occupation,  that  they  were  not  willing 
to  accept  even  their  own  victory  at  the  price  of  giv- 
ing up  their  liberty  of  denunciation.  It  is  doubtless 
very  dangerous  to  the  finer  tissues  of  one's  moral  na- 
ture to  live  only  to  deny  and  contend  and  rebuke. 

But  Mr.  Garrison  showed  conclusively  that  it  was 
love  of  right  and  not  love  of  contention,  that  animated 
him  by  this  prompt,  whole  hearted  acknowledgment 
of  the  good  when  it  came.  No  American  citizen 
ever  came  more  joyfully  and  lovingly  into  the  great 
American  Union,  than  he  who  so  many  years  had 
stood  outside  of  it,  for  conscience'  sake ;  and  he  showed 
just  as  much  steadiness  and  independence  in  disre- 
garding the  criticisms  of  some  of  his  former  coadjutors, 
as  he  formerly  had  in  disregarding  those  of  pro-slavery 
enemies.  He  would  not  say  that  a  work  was  not  done 
which  ivas  done — he  was  honest  and  fair  in  acknowl- 
edging honest  and  fair  work,  and  he  very  wisely  dis- 
tinguished between  emancipation,  as  a  fixed  and  final 
fact,  and  reconstruction,  as  belonging  to  the  new  era 
founded  on  emancipation.  In  his  last  editorial  he  very 
quietly  and  sensibly  states  his  views  on  this  subject, 
and  repels  the  charge  which  had  been  made  that  he 


VISIT    TO    ENGLAND.  209 

was  deserting  the  battle  before  tlie  victory  was  won. 
He  ends  by  saying  : 

"I  shall  sound  no  trumpet  and  make  no  parade  as  to 
what  I  shall  do  for  the  future.  After  having  gone 
through  with  such  a  struggle  as  has  never  been  paral- 
leled in  duration  in  the  life  of  any  reformer,  and  for 
nearly  forty  years  been  the  target  at  which  all  pois- 
onous and  deadly  missiles  have  been  hurled,  and  having 
seen  our  great  national  iniquity  blotted  out,  and  free- 
dom '  proclaimed  throughout  all  the  land  to  all  the 
inhabitants  thereof,'  and  a  thousand  presses  and  pul- 
pits supporting  the  claims  of  the  colored  population 
to  fair  treatment  where  not  one  could  be  found  to  do 
this  in  the  early  days  of  the  anti-slavery  conflict,  I  might, 
it  seems  to  me — be  permitted  to  take  a  little  repose  in 
my  advanced  years,  if  I  desired  to  do  so.  But,  as  yet, 
I  have  neither  asked  nor  wished  to  be  relieved  of  any 
burdens  or  labors  connected  with  the  good  old  cause. 
I  see  a  mighty  work  of  enlightenment  and  regenera- 
tion yet  to  be  accomplished  at  the  South,  and  many 
cruel  wrongs  done  to  the  freedmen  which  are  yet  to 
be  redressed;  and  I  neither  counsel  others  to  turn 
away  from  the  field  of  conflict,  under  the  delusion  that 
no  more  remains  to  be  done,  nor  contemplate  such  a 
course  in  my  own  case." 

Mr.  Garrison's  health,  which  had  suffered  severely 
from  his  long  labors,  required  the  relief  of  foreign 
travel. 

He  once  more  revisited  England,  where  his  course 
was  one  unbroken  triumph.  A  great  breakfast  was 
given  in  his  honor  at  St.  James'  Hall,  London,  at  which 
John  Bright  presided.     The  Duke  of  Argyle  present- 


210  WILLIAM   LLOYD    GARRISON. 

ed  a  complinientary  address  to  Mr.  Garrison,  congrat- 
ulating him  on  the  successful  termination  of  the  Anti- 
Slavery  struggle.  Lord  John  Russell  seconded  this 
address,  and  at  this  time  magnanimously  retracted  cer- 
tain hasty  sayings  in  regard  to  the  recent  conflict  in 
America,  at  its  commencement.  In  the  city  of  Edin- 
burgh he  was  received  in  a  crowded  public  meeting 
with  tumultuous  cheering,  and  the  freedom  of  the  city 
was  solemnly  presented  to  him  by  the  Lord  Provost 
and  magistracy.     In  a  private  letter  he  says : 

"I  need  not  tell  you  that  I  went  to  England  with  no 
purpose  or  thought  of  being  lionized,  but  only  quietly 
to  see  old  friends,  to  seek  recreation,  hoping  to  reno- 
vate my  failing  health  by  the  voyage.  But  I  shall 
ever  gratefully  remember  those  friendly  manifestations 
towards  me  and  my  native  land." 

In  conclusion,  it  is  but  justice  to  human  nature  in 
general  and  to  New  England  in  particular,  to  say  that 
the  poets  of  New  England,  true  to  a  divine  inspira- 
tion always  honored  Garrison,  even  in  his  days  of  deep- 
est darkness  and  rebuke.  Longfellow,  Russell,  Lowell, 
Whittier  and  Emerson,  came  out  boldly  with  Anti- 
Slavery  poems.  They  were  the  wise  men,  star-led, 
who  brought  to  the  stable  and  the  manger  of  the  in- 
fant cause,  the  gold,  frankincense  and  myrrh.  It  was 
a  great  opportunity,  and  they  had  grace  given  them  to 
use  it,  and  not  all  the  fame  they  had  won  otherwise, 
honors  them  so  much  as  those  tributes  to  humanity 
and  liberty  which  they  bestowed  in  the  hour  of  her 
utmost  need. 

We  will  conclude  this  sketch  by  a  letter  from  Mr. 
Garrison,  which  best  shows  the  spirit  in  which  he  re- 
gards the  result  of  the  great  conflict. 


letter  to  mrs.  stowe.  211 

"  Dear  Mrs.  Stowe  : 

For  your  very  appreciative  and  congratulatory  let- 
ter on  the  "marvellous  work  of  the  Lord,''  which  the 
Liberator  marks  as  finished,  I  proffer  you  my  heart- 
felt thanks,  and  join  with  you  in  a  song  of  thanksgiv- 
ing to  Him,  who,  by  a  mighty  hand  and  an  out- 
stretched arm  has  set  free  the  captive  millions  in  our 
land. 

"The  instrumentalities  which  the  God  of  the  oppress- 
ed has  used  for  the  overthrow  of  the  slave  system, 
have  been  as  multifarious  and  extraordinary  as  that 
system  has  been  brutal  and  iniquitous.  Every  thing 
that  has  been  done,  whether  to  break  the  yoke  or  to 
rivet  it  more  strongly,  has  been  needed  to  bring  about 
the  great  result.  The  very  madness  of  the  South  has 
worked  as  effectively  anti-slavery-wise  as  the  most 
strenuous  efforts  of  the  abolitionists. 

"  The  outlawry  of  all  Northern  men  of  known  hos- 
tility to  slavery — the  numberless  pro-slavery  mobs  and 
lyuchings,  her  defiant  and  awful  defence  of  the  trafiic 
in  hiiman  flesh,  her  increasing  rigor  and  cruelties  tow- 
ards the  slaves,  and  finally  her  horrible  treason  and  re- 
bellion to  secure  her  independence  as  a  vast  slavehold- 
ing  empire,  through  all  time,  all  mightily  helped  to  de- 
feat her  impious  purpose  and  to  hasten  the  year  of 
jubilee.     Thus  it  is  that 

God  moves  in  a  mysterious  way, 

His  wonders  to  perform  ; 
He  plants  his  footsteps  in  the  sea, 

And  rides  upon  the  storm. 

And  who  but  God  is  to  be  glorified  ? 


CHAPTER  IV. 

CHARLES     SUM  NEE. 

Mr.  Sumner  an  Instance  of  Free  State  High  Culture — The  "  Brahmin  Caste  "  of 
New  England — The  Sumner  Ancestry  ;  a  Kentish  Family — Governor  Increase 
Sumner ;  His  Revolutionary  Patriotism — His  Stately  Pi-esence  ;  "  a  Governor 
that  can  Walk  "  — Charles  Sumner's  Father — Mr.  Sumner's  Education,  Legal 
and  Literary  Studies^Tendency  to  Ideal  Perfection — Sumner  and  the  Whigs 
— Abolitionism  Social  Death — Sumner's  Opposition  to  the  Mexican  War — His 
Peace  Principles — Sumner  opposes  Slavery  Within  the  Constitution,  as  Garri- 
son Outside  of  it — Anti-Slavery  and  the  Whigs — The  Political  Abolitionist 
Platform — Webster  asked  in  vain  to  Oppose  Slavery — Sumner's  Eebuke  of 
Winthrop — Joins  the  Free  Soil  Party — Succeeds  Webster  in  the  Senate — Great 
Speech  against  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law — The  Constitution  a  Charter  of  Liber- 
ty— Slavery  not  in  the  Constitution — First  Speech  after  the  Brooks  Assault — 
Consistency  as  to  Reconstruction. 

In  the  example  of  Abraham  Lincoln  we  have  shown 
the  working  man,  self-educated,  rising  to  greatness  and 
station,  under  influences  purely  American.  It  is  our 
pride  to  say  that  in  no  other  country  of  the  world 
could  a  man  of  the  working  classes  have  had  a  career 
like  that  of  Lincoln. 

We  choose  now  another  name  made  famous  by  the 
great  struggle  for  principle  and  right  which  has  ended 
in  our  recent  war.  As  Lincoln  is  a  specimen  of  the 
facilities,  means  of  self-education  and  advance  in  life 
which  America  gives  to  the  working  man,  so  Charles 
Sumner  is  a  specimen  of  that  finish,  breadth,  and  ex- 
tent of  culture  which  could  be  produced  by  the  best 
blood  and  the  best  educational  institutions  of  the 
oldest  among  the  free  States  of  America. 

214 


I 


(^ /L ^^^    -/^ ^u^^/-^ 


THE    SUMNER    ANCESTRY.  215 

"We  may  speak  properly  of  the  blood  of  the  Sumner 
family,  for  they  belong  to  what  Dr.  Oliver  Wendell 
Holmes  so  happily  characterizes  as  the  "  Brahmin  caste 
of  New  England,"  that  "harmless,  inoffensive,  untitled 
aristocracy,"  in  whom  elevated  notions  of  life,  and 
aptitudes  for  learning,  seem,  in  his  own  words,  to  be 
"hereditary  and  congenital."  "Families  whose  names 
are  always  on  college  catalogues  ;  and  who  break  out 
every  generation  or  two  in  some  learned  labor  which 
calls  them  up  after  they  seem  to  have  died  out."  A 
glance  at  the  Cambridge  catalogue  will  show  a  long 
line  of  Sumners,  from  1723  down  to  the  graduation  of 
our  present  Senator. 

Like  many  other  American  families  distinguished  for 
energy  and  intellectual  vigor,  the  Sumner  fimily  can 
trace  back  their  lineage  to  the  hardy  physical  stock  of 
the  English  yeomanry.  The  race,  afterwards  emigrat- 
ing to  Oxfordshire,  had  its  first  origin  in  Kent,  and  it 
is  curious  to  see  how  to  this  day  it  preserves  physical 
traits  of  its  origin.  The  Kentish  men  were  tall,  strong, 
long-limbed,  and  hardy,  much  relied  on  for  archery 
and  holding  generally  the  front  of  the  battle.  The 
Sumners  in  America  have  been  marked  men  in  these 
same  physical  points ;  men  of  commanding  stature ' 
and  fine  vital  temperament,  strong,  athletic,  and  with 
the  steady  cheerfulness  of  good  health  and  good  di- 
gestion. 

One  of  the  early  ancestors  of  this  family,  who  lived 
in  Roxbury,  is  thus  characterized  in  the  Antiquarian 
Register:  "Never  was  there  a  man  better  calculated 
for  the  sturdy  labors  of  a  yeoman.  He  was  of  colossal 
size  and,  equal  strength  of  muscle,  which  was  kept  in 


216  CHARLES    SUMNER. 

tone  by  regularity  and  good  liabits.  He  shrunk  from 
no  labor,  however  arduous  and  fatiguing  it  might  seem 
to  others.  Instances  of  the  wonderful  feats  of  strength 
performed  by  him  were  related  after  his  death  by  his 
contemporaries  in  his  native  place  and  the  vicinity." 

The  son  of  this  man  was  the  venerated  Increase 
Sumner,  the  cousin  of  Charles  Sumner's  father,  one  of 
the  most  distinguished  Judges  and  Governors  of  Mas- 
sachusetts. He  was  indeed  one  of  the  nursing  fathers 
of  the  State  of  Massachusetts  during  the  critical  pe- 
riod when,  just  emerging  from  the  tutelage  of  Eng- 
land, she  was  trying  the  experiment  of  a  State  consti- 
tutional government. 

Some  of  the  sayings  of  Increase  Sumner  are  impor- 
tant, as  showing  of  what  stock  it  was  that  our  present 
Massachusetts  Senator  came,  and  what  were  the  family 
traditions  in  which  he  was  educated.  In  a  letter  just 
in  the  beginning  of  the  revolutionary  war,  he  says  : 

"  The  man  who,  regardless  of  public  happiness,  is 
ready  to  fall  in  with  base  measures,  and  sacrifice  con- 
science, honor  and  ■  his  country,  merely  for  his  own 
advancement,  must  (if  not  wretchedly  hardened,)  feel 
a  torture,  the  intenseness  of  which  nothing  in  this 
world  can  equal." 

Again,  in  one  of  his  judicial  charges,  he  says : 

"  America  furnishes  one  of  the  few  instances  of 
countries  where  the  blessings  of  civil  liberty  and  the 
rights  of  mankind  have  been  the  primary  objects  of 
their  political  institutions ;  in  which  the  rich  and  poor 
are  equally  protected  ;  where  the  rights  of  conscience 
are  fully  enjoyed,  and  where  merit  and  ability  can  be 
the  only  claim  to  the  favor  of  the  public.     May  we  not 


A   GOVERNOR   THAT    CAtf   WALK.  217 

tlien  pronounce  that  man  destitute  of  the  true  prmci- 
ples  of  liberty  and  unworthy  the  blessing  of  society, 
who  does  not  at  all  times  lend  his  aid  to  support  and 
maintain  a  government  on  the  preservation  of  which 
depends  his  own  political  as  well  as  private  happi- 
ness?" 

Never  was  a  Governor  of  Massachusetts  carried  to 
the  chair  with  more  popular  enthusiasm  than  Increase 
Sumner,  to  which,  doubtless,  his  stately  person  and 
appearance  of  high  physical  vigor  added  greatly. 
Hancock  had  been  crippled  with  gout,  and  Adams  had 
been  bent  with  infirmity,  and  the  populace,  ever  prone 
to  walk  by  sight,  were  cheered  by  the  stately  step- 
pings  of  their  new  leader.  "Thank  God,  we  have  got 
a  Governor  that  can  walk^  at  last,"  said  an  old  apple 
woman,  as  he  passed  in  state  at  the  head  of  the  legis- 
lative body,  from  hearing  the  election  sermon  in  the 
Old  South. 

The  father  of  Charles  Sumner  was  no  less  distin- 
guished for  the  personal  and  mental  gifts  of  the  family. 
He  was  an  able  lawyer,  and  for  many  years  filled  the 
office  of  high  sherifp  of  Suff'olk  county,  and  is  still 
spoken  of  with  enthusiasm  by  those  who  remember 
him,  as  a  magnificent  specimen  of  aman  of  the  noblest 
type  ;  noble  in  person,  in  manners  and  in  mind,  and  of 
most  immaculate  integrity.  He  was  the  last  high  sher- 
iff who  retained  the  antique  dress  derived  from  Eng- 
lish usage,  and  the  custom  well  became  his  lordly  per- 
son and  graceful  dignity  of  manner. 

Charles  Sumner,  therefore,  succeeded  to  physical 
vigor,  to  patriotic  sentiment  and  noble  ideas  as  his 
birthright.  -  His  education  was  pursued  in  the  Boston 


218  CHARLES   SUMNER. 

Latin  scliool  and  in  Phillips  Academy,  which  is  still 
proud  of  the  tradition  of  his  sojourn,  and  lastly  in 
Harvard  College,  where  he  graduated  in  1830. 

In  the  same  place  he  pursued  his  law  studies,  under 
Judge  Story,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1834.  No 
young  man  could  rise  more  rapidly.  He  soon  gained 
a  large  practice,  and  was  appointed  reporter  of  the 
Circuit  Court  of  the  United  States,  in  which  capacity 
he  published  three  volumes,  known  as  Sumner's  Re- 
ports, containing  the  decisions  of  Judge  Story.  He 
also  edited  the  American  Jurist^  a  quarterly  law  journal. 
The  first  three  winters  after  his  admission  to  the  bar  he 
lectured  in  the  Cambridge  Law  School  with  such  ap- 
proval that  in  1836,  he  was  offered  a  professorship  in 
the  Law  School,  which  he  declined. 

In  1837  he  visited  Europe  for  purposes  of  travel 
and  general  improvement,  and  remained  there  for  three 
years,  returning  in  1840.  As  the  result  of  this  so- 
journ, he  added  to  his  previous  classical  and  legal 
knowledge  an  extensive  and  accurate  acquaintance 
with  the  leading  languages  and  literature  of  modern 
Europe.  Possessed  of  a  memory  remarkable  for  its 
extent  and  accuracy,  all  these  varied  treasures  were 
arranged  in  his  mind  where  they  could  be  found  at  a 
moment's  notice.  We  have  heard  of  his  being  present 
once  at  a  dinner,  among  the  Cambridge  elite^  when 
Longfellow  repeated  some  French  verses,  which  he 
said  had  struck  him  by  their  euphony  and  elegance,  but 
to  which  he  could  not  at  the  moment  assign  the  name 
of  the  author.  Sumner  immediately  rose  from  the 
table,  took  down  a  volume  of  Voltaire,  and  without  a 
moment's  hesitation  turned  to  the  passage.     He  has 


SUMNER  AND  THE  WHIGS.  219 

sometimes  been  accused  of  a  sort  of  pedantry  in  the 
frequent  use  of  classical  and  historical  illustration  in 
his  speeches,  but  the  occurrence  of  these  has  been  the 
result  of  a  familiarity  which  made  their  use  to  him  the 
most  natural  and  involuntary  thing  in  the  world. 

In  the  outset  of  Sumner's  career  it  was  sometimes 
said  of  him  that  he  was  a  brilliant  theorizer,  but  that 
he  would  never  be  a  practical  politician.  His  mind, 
indeed,  belongs  to  that  class  whose  enthusiasms  are 
more  for  ideas  and  principles  than  for  men.  He  had 
the  capacity  of  loving  the  absolute  right,  abstracted 
from  its  practical  uses.  There  was  a  tendency  in  his 
mind  to  seek  ideal  perfection  and  completeness.  In 
study,  his  standard  was  that  of  the  most  finished  schol- 
arship ;  in  politics  and  the  general  conduct  of  life  it 
w^as  that  of  the  severest  models  of  the  antique,  ele- 
vated and  refined  by  Christianity. 

He  returned  to  his  native  citv  at  a  time  when  the 
intention  in  good  faith  to  be  an  ideal  patriot  and  Chris- 
tian, was  in  the  general  estimation  of  good  society,  a 
mark  of  a  want  of  the  practical  faculties.  The  Whig 
party,  in  whose  ranks,  by  birth  and  tradition,  he  be- 
longed, looked  upon  him  as  the  son  of  their  right 
hand ;  though  they  shook  their  heads  gently  at  what 
seemed  to  them  thevery  young  and  innocent  zeal  with 
which  he  began  applying  the  weights  and  measures  of 
celestial  regions  to  affairs  where,  it  was  generally  con- 
ceded, it  would  be  fatal  to  use  them. 

Just  at  this  season,  the  great  Babylon,  which  now 
is  cast  down  with  execration,  sat  as  a  queen  at  Wash- 
ington, and  gave  laws,  and  bewitched  northern  poli- 
ticians wi^h  her  sorceries.     Church  and  State  were  en- 


220  CHARLES   SUMNER. 

tangled  in  her  nets,  and  followed,  half  willingly,  half 
unwilling,  at  her  chariot  wheels.  The  first,  loudest, 
most  importunate  demand  of  this  sorceress  was,  that  the 
rule  "  Do  unto  others  as  ye  would  that  others  should 
do  unto  you  "  should  be  repealed.  There  was  no  ob- 
jection to  its  forming  a  part  of  the  church  service,  and 
being  admired  in  general  terms,  as  an  ideal  fragment 
of  the  apostolic  age,  but  the  attempt  to  apply  it  to  the 
regulation  of  national  affairs  was  ridiculed  as  an  ab- 
surdity, and  denounced  as  a  dangerous  heresy. 

What  then  was  the  dismay  of  Beacon  Street,  the  con- 
sternation of  State  Street,  when  this  young  laurelled 
son  of  Cambridge,  fresh  from  his  foreign  tour,  with 
all  his  career  of  honor  before  him,  showed  symptoms 
of  declining  towards  the  abolitionists.  The  abolition- 
ists, of  all  men !  Had  not  Garrison  been  dragged  by 
a  halter  round  his  neck  through  the  streets  of  Boston  ? 
And  did  not  the  most  respectable  citizens  cry,  Well 
done  ?  Was  it  not  absolute  social  and  political  death 
to  any  young  man  to  fall  into  those  ranks  ? 

Had  not  the  Legislature  of  the  sovereign  state  of 
Georgia  in  an  ofl&cial  proclamation  signed  by  their 
governor,  set  a  price  on  Garrison's  head  as  an  incen- 
diary, and  had  not  a  Governor  of  Massachusetts  in  his 
message  to  a  Massachusetts  Legislature,  so  far  sympa- 
thized with  his  southern  brethren  as  to  introduce  into 
his  inaugural  a  severe  censure  of  the  abolitionists,  and 
to  intimate  his  belief  that  in  their  proceedings  they 
were  guilty  of  an  offence  punishable  by  common  law  ? 
Had  not  Massachusetts  legislatures  taken  into  respect- 
ful consideration  resolutions  from  slaveholdins;  le2:is- 
latures,  dictating  to  them  in  that  high  style  for  which 


SUilNER   AND    THE    WHIGS.  221 

such  documents  are  famous,  that  they  should  pass  laws 
making  it  penal  to  utter  abolitionist  sentiments  ? 

All  this  had  been  going  on  during  the  three  years 
while  Sumner  was  in  Europe,  and  now,  when  he  was 
coming  home  to  take  his  place  as  by  right  in  the  po- 
litical ranks,  did  it  not  become  him  to  be  very  careful 
how  he  suffered  indiscreet  moral  enthusiasm  to  betray 
him  into  expressions  which  might  identify  him  with 
these  despised  abolitionists  ?  Was  not  that  socially  to 
forfeit  his  birthright,  to  close  upon  him  every  parlor 
and  boudoir  of  Beacon  Street,  to  make  State  Street 
his  enemy,  to  shut  up  from  him  every  office  of  ad- 
vancement or  profit,  and  make  him  for  every  purpose 
of  the  Whig  party  a  useless  impracticable  instrument? 

And  so  the  rising  young  man  was  warned  to  let 
such  things  alone  ;  not  to  strive  for  the  impossible  am- 
brosia of  the  higher  morals,  and  to  content  himself 
like  his  neighbors,  with  the  tangible  cabbage  of  com- 
promise, as  fitted  to  our  mortal  state. 

He  was  warned  with  fatherly  unction,  by  comfort- 
able old  Whigs,  who  to-day  are  shouting,  even  louder 
than  he,  "  Down  with  Babylon,  raze  it,  raze  it  to  the 
foundations ! " 

But  in  spite  of  such  warnings  and  cautions,  Sumner 
became  an  ardent  and  thoroughgoing  anti-slavery  man, 
and  did  not  hesitate  to  avow  himself  an  abolitionist  and 
to  give  public  utterance  to  his  moral  feelings,  contrary 
to  the  stringent  discipline  of  the  Whig  party. 

On  the  4th  of  July,  1844,  Sumner  pronounced  in 
Boston,  in  view  of  the  threatening  Mexican  war,  an 
oration  on  "The  True  Grandeur  of  Nations." 


222  CHAKLES    SUMNER. 

This  discussed  the  general  questions  of  Tvar  from 
the  Christian  stand  point,  and  deprecated  the  threat- 
ened one  on  Christian  principles.  It  might  have 
passed  as  a  harmless  peace  tract  in  ordinary  times, 
but  just  at  this  period,  it  was  too  evidently  the  raising 
a  standard  against  Babylon  to  be  considered  accepta- 
ble doctrine,  for  had  not  Babylon  issued  a  decree  that 
Gospel  or  no  Gospel,  a  war  with  Mexico  must  take 
place,  so  that  she  might  gain  more  slave  territory  ? 
Let  the  young  man  look  to  himself,  applying  such  im- 
possible, impracticable  tests  to  such  delicate  political 
questions !  The  speech,  however,  was  widely  circu- 
lated, both  here  and  in  England,  and  was  said  by  Cob- 
den  to  be  one  of  the  noblest  contributions  ever  made 
to  the  cause  of  peace. 

November  4,  1845,  Sumner  spoke  more  decidedly 
against  the  Mexican  war,  in  a  public  meeting  at  Fan- 
euil  Hall,  and  the  next  year  came  out  boldly  in  the 
Whig  convention  with  an  address,  on  "The  Anti-Slav- 
ery Duties  of  the  Whig  Party." 

In  this  speech,  Sumner,  as  openly  as  Garrison,  de- 
clared himself  the  eternal  opponent  of  slavery,  and 
defined  his  position  and  marked  out  his  work  witliin 
the  constitution  of  the  United  States,  and  hy  the  con- 
stitution, just  as  Garrison  had  marked  out  his  work 
outside  of  the  constitution,  and  against  it. 

Sumner  took  the  ground  that  the  constitution  of 
the  United  States  was  not  a  covenant  with  death,  or 
an  agreement  with  hell,  but  an  instrument  designed  to 
secure  liberty  and  equal  rights,  and  that  the  present 
sanction  and  encouragement  it  was  giving  to  slavery 
was  owing  to  a  perversion  of  its  original  design.     He 


ANTI-SLAVERY  AND  THE  WHIGS.         223 

maintained  that  tlie  constitution  nowhere  recognises 
slavery  as  an  institution,  that  the  slave  is  nowhere 
sj)oken  of  in  it  as  a  chattel  but  as  a  person,  and  that 
those  provisions  in  the  constitution  which  confer  cer- 
tain privileges  on  slaveholders  were  supposed  to  be 
temporary  compromises  with  what  the  founders  of  the 
constitution  imagined  would  prove  only  a  temporary 
institution — soon  to  pass  entirely  away  from  the  coun- 
try.    He  asserts  in  this  speech : 

"There  is  in  the  constitution  no  compromise  on  the 
subject  of  slavery  of  a  character  not  to  be  reached 
legally  and  constitutionally,  which  is  the  only  way  in 
which  I  propose  to  reach  it.  Wherever  power  and 
jurisdiction  are  secured  to  Congress,  they  may  un- 
questionably be  exercised  in  conformity  with  the  con- 
stitution. And  even  in  matters  beyond  existing  powers 
and  jurisdiction  there  is  a  constitutional  mode  of  ac- 
tion. The  constitution  contains  an  article  pointing  out 
how  at  any  time  amendments  may  be  made  thereto. 
This  is  an  important  article,  giving  to  the  constitution 
a  progressive  character,  and  allowing  it  to  be  moulded 
to  suit  new  exigences  and  new  conditions  of  feeling. 
The  wise  framers  of  this  instrument  did  not  treat  the 
country  as  a  Chinese  foot,  never  to  grow  after  its  in- 
fancy, but  anticipated  the  changes  incident  to  its 
growth." 

Accordingly,  Sumner  proposed  to  the  Whig  party, 
as  a  rallying  watch-word,  the 

Repeal  of  slavery  under  the  constitution  ant) 
LAWS  OF  the  Federal  Government. 

Of  this  course  he  said:  "The  time  has  passed  when 
this  can  be,  opposed   on   constitutional   grounds.     It 


224  CHARLES   SUMNER. 

Trill  not  be  questioned  by  any  competent  authority, 
that  Congress  may  by  express  legislation  abolish  slav- 
ery, 1st,  in  the  District  of  Columbia;  2d,  in  the  Ter- 
ritories, if  there  should  be  any ;  3d,  that  it  may  abol- 
ish the  slave-trade  on  the  high  seas  between  the  states ; 
4th,  that  it  may  refuse  to  admit  any  new  state  with  a 
constitution  sanctioning  slavery.  Nor  can  it  be  doubt- 
ed that  the  people  of  the  free  States  may  in  the  man- 
ner pointed  out  by  the  constitution,  proceed  to  its 
amendment." 

Here  we  have,  in  a  few  words,  the  platform  of  the 
Political  Abolitionists,  every  step  of  which  has  actually 
been  accomplished. 

But  at  that  time  it  was  altogether  too  exalted  doc- 
trine to  be  received  by  the  Whig  party,  and  Sumner 
tried  his  eloquence  upon  them  in  vain.  In  vain  he 
called  upon  Daniel  Webster  to  carry  out  this  glorious 
programme  in  his  place  in  the  Senate. 

"Assume,"  he  says,  "these  unperformed  duties. 
The  aged  shall  bear  witness  of  you ;  the  young  shall 
kindle  with  rapture  as  they  repeat  the  name  of  Web- 
ster; and  the  large  company  of  the  ransomed  shall 
teach  their  children  and  their  children's  children  to 
the  latest  generation,  to  call  you  blessed ;  while  all 
shall  award  you  another  title,  not  to  be  forgotten  in 
earth  or  heaven — Defender  of  Humanity.'''' 

But  Webster  had  other  aspirations.  He  wanted  to 
be  president  of  the  United  States,  to  be  that  he  must 
please  the  South,  and  so  instead  of  Defender  of  Hu- 
manity he  turned  to  be  a  defender  of  kidnapping  and 
of  the  fugitive  slave  law. 


Sumner's  rebuke  of  wixthrop.  225 

In  1846,  Sumner,  in  a  public  letter,  rebuked  Robert 
C.  Winthrop,  then  a  Massachusetts  representative,  for 
voting  for  the  Mexican  war.  In  this  letter  he  charac- 
terizes the  Mexican  war  as  an  unjust  attack  on  a  sister 
republic,  having  its  origin  in  a  system  of  measures  to 
extend  slavery ;  as  being  dishonorable  and  cowardly, 
as  being  the  attack  of  a  rich  and  powerful  country  on 
a  weak  and  dfefenceless  neighbor ;  and  having  thus 
characterized  it,  he  adds : 

"Such,  sir,  is  the  act  of  Congress  to  which,  by  your 
affirmative  vote,  the  people  of  Boston  have  been  made 
parties.  Through  you  they  have  been  made  to  de- 
clare an  unjust  and  cowardly  war,  with  falsehood,  in 
the  cause  of  slavery.  Through  you  they  have  been 
made  partakers  in  the  blockade  of  Yera  Cruz,  in  the 
seizure  of  California,  in  the  capture  of  Santa  Fe,  and 
in  the  bloodshed  of  Monterey.  It  were  idle  to  sup- 
pose that  the  poor  soldier  or  officer  alone  is  stained 
by  this  guilt — it  reaches  back  and  incarnadines  the 
halls  of  Congress ;  nay,  more,  through  you  it  reddens 
the  hands  of  your  constituents  in  Boston. 

****** 

"Let  me  ask  you,  sir,  to  remember  in  your  public 
course  the  rules  of  right  which  you  obey  in  your  pri- 
vate capacity.  The  principles  of  morals  are  the  same 
for  nations  as  for  individuals.     Pardon  me  if  I  suo-o-est 

DO 

that  you  do  not  appear  to  have  acted  invariably  in 
accordance  with  this  truth. 

****** 
"It  has  been  said  in  apology  by  your  defenders  that 
the  majority  of  the  Whig  party  joined  with  you.     * 

In  the  question  of  right  and  wrong  it  can 
15 


*     * 


226  CHARLES   SUMNER. 

be  of  little  importance  that  a  few  fallible  men,  consti- 
tuting what  is  called  a  majority,  were  all  of  one  mind. 
But  these  majorities  do  not  make  us  withhold  our  con- 
demnation from  the  partakers  in  those  acts.  Aloft  on 
the  throne  of  God,  and  not  below  in  the  footsteps  of 
the  trampling  multitude  of  men,  are  to  be  found  the 
sacred  rules  of  right  which  no  majorities  can  displace 
or  overturn.  And  the  question  returns.  Was  it  right 
to  vote  for  an  unjust  and  cowardly  war^  with  fahe- 
hood,  for  slavery  f " 

These  extracts  will  give  a  tolerable  certainty  that 
the  old  Whig  party  of  Massachusetts,  which  was  thor- 
oughly dead  in  the  trespasses  and  sins  of  pro-slavery 
compromise,  found  Charles  Sumner,  with  all  his  learn- 
ing, and  vigor  and  talent,  a  rather  uncomfortable 
member,  and  that  he  soon  found  that  the  Whig  party 
was  no  place  for  him. 

In  1848  he  left  them  to  unite  in  forming  the  Free 
Soil  party,  in  which  the  platform  of  principles  he  had 
already  announced,  was  to  form  the  distinctive  basis. 

And  now  came  the  great  battle  of  the  Fugitive 
Slave  Law.  The  sorceress  slavery  meditated  a  grand 
coup  d''  etat  that  should  found  a  Southern  slave  em- 
pire, and  shake  off  the  troublesome  North,  and  to  that 
intent  her  agents  concocted  a  statute  so  insulting  to 
Northern  honor,  so  needlessly  offensive  in  its  provi- 
sions, so  derisive  of  what  were  understood  to  be  its 
religious  convictions  and  humane  sentiments,  that  it 
was  thought  verily,  "The  North  never  will  submit  to 
this,  and  we  shall  make  here  the  breaking  point." 
Then  arose  Daniel  Webster,  that  lost  Archangel  of 
New  England — he  who  had  won  her  confidence  by  his 


SUCCEEDS  WEBSTER  IN  THE  SENATE.       227 

knowledge  of  and  reverence  for  all  that  was  most  sa- 
cred in  her,  and  moved  over  to  the  side  of  evil !  It 
was  as  if  a  great  constellation  had  changed  sides  in 
the  heavens,  drawing  after  it  a  third  part  of  the  stars. 
The  North,  perplexed,  silenced,  troubled,  yielded  for 
a  moment.  For  a  brief  space  all  seemed  to  go  down 
before  that  mighty  influence,  and  all  listened,  as  if 
spell  bound,  to  the  serpent  voice  with  which  he  scoffed 
at  the  idea  that  there  was  a  law  of  God  higher  than 
any  law  or  constitution  of  the  United  States. 

But  that  moment  of  degradation  was  the  last.  Back 
came  the  healthy  blood,  the  re-awakened  pulse  of 
moral  feeling  in  New  England,  and  there  were  found 
voices  on  all  sides  to  speak  for  the  right,  and  hearts 
to  respond,  and  on  this  tide  of  re-awakened  moral 
feeling,  Sumner  was  carried  into  the  United  States 
Senate,  to  take  the  seat  vacated  by  Webster.  The 
right  was  not  yet  victorious,  but  the  battle  had  turned 
so  far  that  its  champion  had  a  place  to  stand  on  in  the 
midst  of  the  fray. 

And  what  a  battle  was  that!  What  an  ordeal! 
What  a  gauntlet  to  run  was  that  of  the  man  in  Wash- 
ington who  in  those  days  set  himself  against  the  will 
of  the  great  sorceress !  Plied  with  temptation  on  the 
right  hand  and  on  the  left,  studied,  mapped  out  like  a 
fortress  to  be  attacked  and  taken,  was  every  Northern 
man  who  entered  the  arera.  Could  he  be  bought, 
bribed,  cajoled,  flattered,  terrified?  Which,  or  all? 
So  planned  the  conspirators  in  their  secret  conclaves. 

The  gigantic  Giddings — he  who  brought  to  the 
strife  nerves  toughened  by  backwoods  toil,  and  front- 
ier fights  with  Indians — once  said  of  this  warfare :. 


228  CHARLES   SUMNER. 

"I've  seen  hard  fighting  with  clubs  and  bullets;  I've 
seen  men  falling  all  around  me ;  but  I  tell  you  it  takes 
more  courage  to  stand  up  in  one's  seat  in  Congress 
and  say  the  right  thing,  than  to  walk  up  to  the  can- 
non's mouth.  There's  no  such  courage  as  that  of  the 
anti-slavery  men  there." 

Now,  Sumner's  superb  vitality,  that  hardy  yeoman 
blood  which  his  ancestors  brought  from  England,  stood 
him  in  excellent  stead.  His  strong  and  active  brain  was 
based  on  a  body  muscular,  vigorous,  and  healthy,  inca- 
pable of  nervous  tremor,  bearing  him  with  a  steady  a- 
plomb  through  much  that  would  be  confusing  and  weak- 
ening to  men  of  less  physical  force.  Sumner  had  not  the 
character  of  a  ready  debater ;  not  a  light-armed  skir- 
misher was  he ;  he  resembled  rather  one  of  the  mailed 
warriors  of  ancient  tourney.  When  he  had  deliber- 
ately put  on  his  armor,  all  polished  and  finished  down 
to  buckle  and  shoe-latchet,  and  engraved  with  what- 
not of  classic,  or  Venetian,  or  Genoese  device ;  when  he 
put  down  his  visor,  steadied  his  lance,  took  sure  aim, 
and  went  man  and  horse  against  his  antagonist,  all 
went  down  before  him,  as  went  down  all  before  the 
lance  of  Coeur-de-Lion. 

Such  a  charge  into  the  enemy  was  his  first  great 
speech,  "  Freedom  National,  Slavery  Sectional,"  which 
he  directed  against  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law.  It  was 
a  perfect  land-slide  of  history  and  argument ;  an  ava- 
lanche under  which  the  opposing  party  were  logically 
buried,  and  it  has  been  a  magazine  from  which  cata- 
pults have  been  taken  to  beat  down  their  fortresses 
ever  since. 


THE   CONSTITUTION    A    CHARTER    OF   LIBERTY.        229 

If  Daniel  Webster  merited  tlie  title  of  tlie  great 
expounder  of  the  constitution,  Sumner  at  this  crisis 
merited  that  of  the  great  defender  of  the  constitution. 
In  this  speech  we  see  clearly  the  principle  on  which 
Charles  Sumner,  whQe  holding  the  same  conscientious 
ground  with  JSIr.  Garrison  in  regard  to  the  wickedness 
of  slavery,  could  yet  see  his  way  clear  to  take  the  oath 
to  support  and  defend  the  constitution  of  the  United 
States. 

It  was  because  he  believed  ex  animo,  that  that 
constitution  was  an  agreement  made  to  promote  and 
DEFEND  LIBERTY,  and  though  iucluding  in  itself  certain 
defective  compromises,  which  never  ought  to  have 
been  there,  had  yet  within  itself  the  constitutional 
power  of  revoking  even  those  compromises,  and  com- 
ing over  entirely  on  to  the  ground  of  liberty. 

The  fugitive  slave  law,  as  it  was  called,  he  opposed 
on  the  ground  that  it  was  unconstitutional,  that  it  was 
contrary  to  the  spirit  and  intention  of  the  constitution, 
and  to  the  well  known  spirit  and  intention  of  the  men 
who  made  that  constitution.  In  this  part,  Mr.  Sumner, 
going  back  to  the  history  of  the  debates  at  the  form- 
ation of  the  constitution,  gave  a  masterly  resume  of 
the  subject,  showed  that  the  leading  men  of  those 
days  were  aU  strong  anti-slavery  men,  that  they  all 
looked  forward  to  the  gradual  dying  out  of  slavery 
as  certain,  and  that  with  great  care  they  avoided  in 
the  constitution  any  legal  recognition  of  such  an  un- 
lawful, unnatural  relation.  That  the  word  slave  did 
not  exist  in  the  document,  and  that  when  the  slaves 
of  the  South  were  spoken  of  in  relation  to  apportion- 
ing the  suffrage,  they  were  spoken  of  as  "persons," 


230  CHAELES  SUMNER. 

and  not  as  cliattels ;  that  even  tlie  very  clause  of  the 
constitution  which  has  been  perverted  into  a  founda- 
tion for  the  fugitive  slave  law,  had  been  purposely  so 
framed  that  it  did  not  really  describe  the  position  of 
slaves  under  southern  law,  but  only  that  of  such  la- 
borers as  were  by  law  denominated  and  recognized  as 
j^ersons.  By  slave  law  the  slaves  were  not  regarded 
as  "persons  held  to  service  and  labor,"  but  as  chattels 
personal,  and  it  was  only  apprentices  and  free  persons 
to  whom  the  terms  could  literally  be  made  to  apply. 

He  showed  by  abundant  quotations  from  the  debates 
of  the  times  that  this  use  of  language  was  not  acci- 
dental, but  expressly  designed  to  avoid  corrupting  the 
constitution  of  the  United  States  with  any  recognition 
of  the  principle  that  man  could  hold  man  as  property. 
He  admitted  that  the  makers  of  it  knew  and  admitted 
that  under  it  slaveholders  could  recover  their  slaves, 
but  considering  slaveholding  as  a  temporary  thing, 
they  had  arranged  so  that  the  language  of  their  great 
national  document  should  remain  intact  and  uncorrupt. 
From  this  masterly  speech  we  extract  the  concluding 
summary : 

"At  the  risk  of  repetition,  but  for  the  sake  of  clear- 
ness, review  now  this  argument,  and  gather  it  togeth- 
er. Considering  that  slavery  is  of  such  an  offensive 
character  that  it  can  find  sanction  only  in  positive  law 
and  that  it  has  no  such  '  positive '  sanction  in  the  con- 
stitution ;  that  the  constitution,  according  to  its  Pre- 
amble, was  ordained  to  'establish  justice,'  and  'secure 
the  blessings  of  liberty ;'  that  in  the  convention  which 
framed  it,  and  also  elsewhere  at  the  time,  it  was  de- 
clared not  to  'sanction  slavery;'  that  according  to  the 


SLAVERY   NOT    IN   THE    CONSTITUTION.  231 

Declaration  of  Independence,  and  the  address  of  the 
Continental  Congress,  the  nation  was  dedicated  to 
'liberty'  and  the  'rights  of  human  nature;'  that  ac- 
cording to  the  principles  of  common  law,  the  consti- 
tution must  be  interpreted  openly,  actively,  and  per- 
petually for  Freedom ;  that  according  to  the  decision 
of  the  Supreme  Court,  it  acts  upon  slaves,  not  as  jyrop- 
erty^  but  as  persons  /  that,  at  the  first  organization  of 
the  national  government,  under  Washington,  slavery 
had  no  national  favor,  existed  nowhere  on  the  national 
territory,  beneath  the  national  flag,  but  was  openly 
condemned  by  the  nation,  the  church,  the  colleges 
and  literature  of  the  time ;  and  finally,  that  according 
to  an  amendment  of  the  constitution,  the  national 
government  can  only  exercise  powers  delegated  to  it, 
among  which  there  is  none  to  support  slavery ;  con- 
sidering these  things,  sir,  it  is  impossible  to  avoid  the 
single  conclusion  that  slavery  is  in  no  respect  a  na- 
tional institution,  and  that  the  constitution  nowhere 
upholds  property  in  man. 

"But  there  is  one  other  special  provision  of  the  con- 
stitution, which  I  have  reserved  to  this  stage,  not  so 
much  from  its  superior  importance,  but  because  it  may 
fitly  stand  by  itself  This  alone,  if  practically  applied, 
would  carry  freedom  to  all  within  its  influence.  It  is 
an  amendment  proposed  by  the  first  Congress,  as  fol- 
lows: 'No  person  shall  be  deprived  of  life,  lihertij,  or 
property,  luitliout  due  process  of  Jaio.'  Under  this 
asgis  the  liberty  of  every  person  within  the  national 
jurisdiction  is  unequivocally  placed.  I  say  every  per. 
son.  Of  this  there  can  be  no  question.  The  word 
'  person,'  in  the  constitution,   embraces  every  human 


232  CHARLES   SUMNER. 

being   within  its  sphere,  whether  Caucasian,  Indian, 
or  African,  from  the  President  to  the  slave." 

The  moral  influence  of  these  doctrines  on  the  political 
abolitionists  was  very  great.  Garrison's  sharp,  clear 
preaching  of  the  Bible  doctrine  of  sin  and  repentance, 
had  awakened  a  great  deal  of  moral  feeling  in  the 
land,  and  it  became  a  real  case  of  conscience  to  a 
great  many,  how  they  could  in  any  way  take  the  oath 
to  support  a  constitution  which  they  thought  support- 
ed slavery.  On  this  subject,  in  all  pure  and  noble 
minds,  there  began  to  be  great  searchings  of  heart, 
but  the  clearness,  the  fulness,  the  triumphant  power  with 
which  Sumner  and  others  brought  out  the  true  intention 
of  the  constitution,  and  the  spirit  of  its  makers,  gave  a 
feeling  of  clean  and  healthy  vigor  through  the  whole 
party.  Even  the  Garrisonians  could  perceive  at  any 
rate,  that  here  was  a  ground  where  honest  Christians 
might  plant  their  feet,  and  get  a  place  in  the  govern- 
ment to  fight  on,  until  by  the  constitutional  power  of 
amendment  they  might  some  day  cast  out  wholly  the 
usurping  devil  of  slavery,  which  had  lived  and  thriven 
so  much  beyond  the  expectations  of  our  fathers. 

Sumner's  mind  is  particularly  remarkable  for  a  nice 
sense  of  moral  honor.  He  had  truly  that  which  Burke 
calls  "that  chastity  of  honor  which  felt  a  stain  like  a 
wound,"  and  he  felt  keenly  the  disgrace  and  shame  of 
such  an  enactment  as  the  fugitive  slave  law.  He 
never  spoke  of  it  as  a  law.  He  was  careful  to  call  it 
only  an  enactment^  an  attempt  at  law,  which  being 
contrary  to  the  constitution  of  the  country,  never 
could  have  the  binding  force  of  a  law. 


THE   KANSAS   STRUGGLE.  233 

Next  in  the  political  world  came  the  defeat,  dis- 
grace, fall  and  broken  hearted  death  of  Webster, 
who,  having  bid  for  the  Presidency,  at  the  price 
of  all  his  former  convictions,  and  in  the  face  of 
his  former  most  solemnly  expressed  opinions,  was  treat- 
ed by  the  haughty  Southern  oligarchy  with  contemp- 
tuous neglect.  "  The  South  never  pay  their  slaves," 
said  a  northern  farmer  when  he  heard  that  Webster 
had  lost  the  nomination.  Webster  felt  with  keen 
pangs,  that  for  that  slippery  ungrateful  South,  he  had 
lost  the  true  and  noble  heart  of  the  North.  In  the 
grave  with  Webster  died  the  old  Whig  party. 

But  still,  though  this  and  that  man  died,  and  parties 
changed,  the  unflinching  Southern  power  pushed  on 
its  charge.  Webster  being  done  with,  it  took  up 
Douglas  as  its  next  tool,  and  by  him  brought  on  the 
repeal  of  the  Missouri  compromise  and  the  Kansas  and 
Nebraska  battle.  The  war  raged  fiercer  and  hotter 
and  in  the  fray,  Sumner's  voice  was  often  heard  cry- 
ing the  war  cry  of  liberty. 

And  now  the  war  raged  deadlier,  as  came  on  the 
struggle  for  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  compromise, 
when  the  strokes  of  Sumner's  battle  axe,  long  and 
heavy,  were  heard  above  the  din,  and  always  with 
crushing  execution.  The  speech  on  "  The  Crime 
against  Kansas,"  wrought  the  furnace  of  wrath  to  a 
white  heat.  What  was  to  be  done  with  this  man  ? 
Call  him  out  and  fight  him  ?  He  was  known  to  be  on 
principle  a  non-resistant.  Answer  him?  Indeed !  who 
ever  heard  of  such  a  proceeding  ?  How  could  they  ? 
Had  he  not  spoken  the  truth  ?  What  shall  we  do  then  ? 
Plantation  jnanners  suggested  an  answer.     "  Come  be- 


234  CHARLES   SUMNER. 

hind  Mm  at  an  unguarded  moment,  take  him  at  a  dis- 
advantage, three  to  one,  knock  him  down  .and  kill 

him." 

So  said — and  but  for  his  strong  frame,  wonderfril  in 
its  recuperative  power,  and  but  for  the  unseen  protec- 
tion of  a  higher  power, — it  would  have  been  so  done. 

Everybody  knows  the  brutal  history  of  that  coarse 
and  cowardly  assault,  and  how  the  poor  bully  who  ac- 
complished it  was  feted  and  caressed  by  Southern  men 
and  women  in  high  places,  who  hastened  by  presents 
of  canes,  and  snuff  boxes,  and  plate,  to  show  forth 
how  well  he  had  expressed  the  Southern  idea  of  chiv- 
alry. 

Three  or  four  years  spent  abroad,  under  medical 
treatment,  were  necessary  to  enable  even  Sumner's 
vigorous  vitality  to  recover  from  an  assault  so  deadly ; 
but  at  last  he  came  back  to  take  his  seat  in  the  Senate. 

The  poor  cowardly  bully  who  had  assailed  him,  was 
dead — gone  to  a  higher  judgment  seat ;  Butler  was 
dead — and  other  accomplices  of  the  foul  deed  were, 
gone  also.  Under  all  these  circumstances  there  is  some- 
thing thrilling  in  the  idea  of  Sumner  rising  in  the  very 
seat  where  he  had  been  stricken  down,  and  pronounc- 
ing that  searching  speech  to  which  his  very  presence 
there  gave  such  force,  "  The  Barbarism  of  Slavery." 

If  he  had  wished  revenge  he  might  have  had  it,  in 
the  fact  that  he  had  the  solemn  right,  as  one  raised 
from  the  dead,  to  stand  there  and  give  in  his  awful  tes- 
timony. How  solemn  and  dignified,  in  view  of  all 
these  circumstances,  seem  the  introductory  words  of 
his  speech: 


FIR3T   SPEECH  AFTER  BROOKS'   ASSAULT.  235 

"  Mr.  President,  undertaking  now,  after  a  silence  of 
more  than  four  years,  to  addi'ess  the  Senate  on  this  im- 
portant subject,  I  should  suppress  the  emotions  natu- 
ral to  such  an  occasion,  if  I  did  not  declare  on  the 
threshold  my  gratitude  to  that  Supreme  Being,  through 
whose  benign  care  I  am  enabled,  after  much  suffer- 
ing and  many  changes,  once  again  to  resume  my  duties 
here,  and  to  speak  for  the  cause  which  is  so  near  my 
heart,  to  the  honored  commonwealth  whose  represen- 
tative I  am,  and  also  to  my  immediate  associates  in 
this  body,  with  whom  I  enjoy  the  fellowship  which  is 
found  in  tliinhing  alike  concerning  tJie  EejmbUc.  I  owe 
thanks  which  I  seize  this  moment  to  express  for  the 
indulgence  shown  me  throughout  the  protracted  seclu- 
sion enjoined  by  medical  skill ;  and  I  trust  that  it  will 
not  be  thought  unbecoming  in  me  to  put  on  record 
here,  as  an  apology  for  leaving  my  seat  so  long  vacant, 
without  making  way,  by  resignation  for  a  successor, 
that  I  acted  under  the  illusion  of  an  invalid,  whose 
hopes  for  restoration  to  his  natural  health  constantly 
triumphed  over  his  disappointments. 

"When  last  I  entered  into  this  debate  it  became  my 
duty  to  expose  the  crime  against  Kansas,  and  to  insist 
upon  the  immediate  admission  of  that  Territory  as  a 
State  of  this  Union,  with  a  constitution  forbidding  sla- 
very. Time  has  passed,  but  the  question  remains.  Re- 
suming the  discussion  precisely  where  I  left  it,  I  am 
happy  to  avow  that  rule  of  moderation  which,  it  is 
said,  may  venture  even  to  fix  the  boundaries  of  wis- 
dom itself  I  have  no  personal  griefs  to  utter  ;  only  a 
barbarous  egotism  could  intrude  these  into  this  cham- 
ber.    I  have  no  personal  wrongs  to  avenge ;  only  a 


236  CHARLES   SUMNER. 

barbarous  nature  could  attempt  to  wield  that  vengeance 
which  belongs  to  the  Lord,  The  years  that  have  in- 
tervened, and  the  tombs  that  have  been  opened  since 
I  spoke,  have  their  voices  too,  which  I  cannot  fail  to 
hear.  Besides,  what  am  I — what  is  any  man  among 
the  living  or  among  the  dead,  compared  with  the 
Question  before  us  ?  It  is  this  alone  which  I  shall  dis- 
cuss, and  I  open  the  argument  with  that  easy  victory 
which  is  found  in  charity." 

Though  Sumner  was  thus  moderate  in  allusion  to 
himself  or  others,  it  was  still  the  constant  sugges- 
tion to  the  minds  of  all,  of  the  perfect  reason  he^  of 
all  men,  had,  to  know  the  truth  of  what  he  spoke,  that 
gave  a  vehement  force  to  his  words.  That  was  a  speech 
unanswerable,  unanswered.  The  South  had  tried  the 
argument  of  force,  and  it  had  failed !  There  he  was 
again  ! — their  accuser  at  the  bar  of  the  civilized  world! 

In  the  present  administration,  as  Chairman  of  the 
Committee  on  Foreign  Relations,  Sumner  has  with  his 
usual  learning  and  power  defended  American  honor 
against  the  causeless  defamations  and  sneers  of  those 
who  should  have  known  better.  None  of  our  public 
men,  perhaps,  is  more  favorably  known  in  the  Old 
World,  His  talents  and  accomplishments,  as  well  as 
his  heroic  stand  for  principle,  have  given  him  the  fa- 
miliar entree  to  all  that  is  best  worth  knowing  in  Eng- 
land ;  and  it  is  for  that  reason  more  admirable  that  he 
should,  with  such  wealth  of  learning  and  elegance  of 
diction,  have  remonstrated  with  that  great  nation  on 
her  injustice  to  us.  His  pamphlet  on  *'  Our  Foreign 
Relations  "  carries  a  weight  of  metal  in  it  that  is  over- 
powering; it  is  as  thoroughly  exhaustive  of  the  subject 


C0XSI3TEXCY  AS   TO   RECONSTRUCTION.  237 

as  any  of  his  greatest  speeclies, — grave,  grand,  and  se- 
verely true.  It  is  the  strong  blood  of  England  her- 
self speaking  back  to  the  parent  land  as  sorrowfully 
as  Hamlet  to  his  mother. 

In  the  recent  debates  on  Reconstruction,  Sumner  has 
remained  true  to  that  "chastity  of  honor  "  in  relation 
to  the  United  States  Constitution,  which  has  been  char- 
acteristic of  him,  in  opposing  that  short  sighted  repub- 
lican policy  which  proposed  to  secure  the  political 
privileges  of  the  blacks  by  introducing  the  constitu- 
tional amendment,  providing  that  any  state  disfran- 
chising negroes  should  be  deprived  of  a  corresponding 
portion  of  its  representation  in  Congress. 

Sumner  indignantly  repelled  the  suggestion  of  in- 
troducing any  such  amendments  into  the  constitution, 
a.s  working  dishonor  to  that  instrument  by  admitting 
into  it,  in  any  form,  or  under  whatsoever  pretext,  the 
doctrine  of  the  political  inequality  of  races  of  men. 
In  this  we  recognize  a  faultless  consistency  of  principle. 

Sumner  was  cheered  in  the  choice  which  he  made 
in  the  darkest  hour,  by  that  elastic  hope  in  the  success 
of  the  right,  which  is  the  best  inheritance  of  a  strong, 
and  healthy  physical  and  moral  organization.  During 
the  time  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law  battle,  while  the  con- 
flict of  his  election  was  yet  uncertain,  he  was  speaking 
incidentally  to  a  friend  of  the  tremendous  influences 
which  the  then  regnant  genius  of  Daniel  Webster  could 
bring  to  crush  any  young  man  who  opposed  him.  He 
spoke  with  feeling  of  what  had  to  be  sacrificed  by  a 
Boston  young  man  who  set  himself  to  oppose  such  in- 
fluences. The  fiiend,  in  reply,  expressed  some  admira- 
tion of  his  courage  and  self-sacrificing.     He  stopped, 


238  CHARLES   SUMNER. 

as  he  was  walking  up  and  down  the  room,  and  said, 
with  simplicity,  "Courage!  No,  it  doesn't  require  so 
very  much  courage,  because  I  know  that  in  a  few  years 
we  shall  have  all  this  thing  down  under  our  feet.  We 
shall  set  our  heel  upon  it,"  and  he  emphasized  the  sen- 
tence by  bringing  his  heel  heavily  down  upon  the  car- 
pet. 

"  Do  you  really  think  so  ?" 

"I  know  so  ;  of  course  we  shall." 

Those  words,  spoken  in  the  darkest  hour  of  the  anti- 
slavery  conflict,  have  often  seemed  like  a  prophecy,  in 
view  of  all  the  fast  rushing  events  of  the  years  that 
followed.  Now  they  are  verified.  Where  is  the  man 
who  counselled  the  North  to  conquer  their  prejudices  ? 
Where  is  the  man  who  raised  a  laugh  in  popular  as- 
semblies at  the  expense  of  those  who  believed  the  law 
of  God  to  be  higher  than  the  law  of  men  ?  There  is  a 
most  striking  lesson  to  young  men  in  these  histories. 

The  grave  of  the  brilliant  and  accomplished  Doug- 
las lay  far  back  on  the  road  by  which  Lincoln  rose  to 
fame  and  honor,  and  the  grave  of  Webster  on  that  of 
Charles  Sumner,  and  on  both  of  those  graves  might  be 
inscribed  "Lo,  this  is  the  man  that  made  not  God  his 
trust."  Both  scoffed  at  God's  law,  and  proclaimed 
the  doctrine  of  expediency  as  above  right,  and  both 
died  broken  down  and  disappointed;  while  living 
and  honored  at  this  day,  in  this  land  and  all  lands,  are 
the  names  of  those,  who  in  its  darkest  and  weakest 
hour,  espoused  the  cause  of  Liberty  and  Justice. 


Eng'byASBit'-O^'' 


CHAPTER  V. 

SALMON    P.    CHASE. 

England  and  our  Finances  in  the  "War — President  Wheelock  and  Mr.  Chase's 
seven  Uncles — His  Uncle  the  Bishop — His  sense  of  Justice  at  College — His 
Uncle  the  Senator — Admitted  to  the  Bar  for  Cincinnati — His  First  iVrgument 
before  a  U.  S.  Court — Society  in  Cincinnati — The  Ohio  Abolitionists — Cincin- 
nati on  Slavery — The  Church  admits  Slavery  to  bo  "  an  Evil '' — Mr.  Chase 
and  tlie  Bimey  Mob — The  Case  of  tho  Slave  Girl  Matilda — How  Mr.  Chase 
"Ruined  Himself"— He  Affirms  the  Sectional! ty  of  Slaverj-. — The  Van  Zandt 
Case — Extracts  from  Mr.  Chase's  Argument — Mr.  Chase  in  Anti-Slavery  Poli- 
tics— His  Qualifications  as  a  Financier. 

When  a  future  generation  shall  be  building  the 
tombs  of  our  present  prophets,  and  adorning  the  halls 
of  the  Capitol  with  the  busts  of  men  now  too  hard  at 
work  to  be  sitting  to  the  sculptor,  then  there  will  be 
among  the  marble  throng  one  head  not  inferior  to  any 
now  there  in  outside  marks  of  greatness — a  head  to 
which  our  children  shall  point  and  say,  "  There  is  the 
financier  who  carried  our  country  through  the  great 
slavery  war!" 

Not  a  small  thing  that  to  say  of  any  man ;  for  this 
war  has  been  on  a  scale  of  magnitude  before  unheard 
of  in  the  history  of  wars.  It  has  been,  so  to  speak,  a 
fabulous  war,  a  war  of  a  tropical  growth,  a  war  to 
other  wars,  like  the  great  Californian  pine  to  the 
bramble  of  the  forest.     A  thousand  miles  of  frontier 

£41 


242  SALMON   P.    CHASE. 

to  be  guarded,  fleets  to  be  created,  an  army  to  be  or- 
ganized and  constantly  renewed  on  a  scale  of  numbers 
beyond  all  European  experience — an  army,  too,  for 
the  most  part,  of  volunteer  citizens  accustomed  to  gen- 
erous diet,  whose  camp  fare  has  been  kept  at  a  mark 
not  inferior  to  the  average  of  living  among  citizens  at 
home.  And  all  this  was  to  be  effected  in  no  common 
times.  It  was  to  be  done  amid  the  revolutions  of  busi- 
ness, the  disturbances  of  trade  and  manufacture,  then 
turning  into  new  courses;  and  above  all,  the  breaking 
up  of  the  whole  system  of  cotton  agriculture,  by 
which  the  greatest  staple  of  the  world  was  produced. 
These  changes  convulsed  and  disarranged  financial 
relations  in  all  other  countries,  and  shook  the  civilized 
world  like  an  earthquake. 

It  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  a  merely  insular 
paper,  like  the  London  Times^  ignorant  of  all  beyond 
the  routine  of  British  and  continental  probabilities, 
should  have  declared  us  madmen,  and  announced  our 
speedy  bankruptcy.  We  all  know  that  paper  to  be 
conducted  by  the  best  of  old  world  ability,  and  are 
ready  to  concede  that  the  grave  writers  therein  used 
their  best  light,  and  certainly  they  did  their  best  to 
instruct  us.  How  paternally  did  it  warn  us  that  we 
must  not  look  to  John  Bull  for  funds  to  carry  out  such 
extravagances !  How  ostentatiously  did  the  old  bank- 
ing houses  stand  buttoning  their  pockets,  saying, 
"Don't  come  to  us  to  borrow  money!"  and  how  did 
the  wonder  grow  when  the  sun  rose  and  set,  and  still 
new  levies,  new  fleets,  new  armies ! — when  hundreds  of 
thousands  grew  to  millions,  and  still  there  was  no  call 


PRESIDENT    WHEELOCK   AND    CHASE 's    UNCLES.       243 

for  foreign  money,  and  government  stocks  stood  in  tlie 
market  above  all  others  in  stability. 

One  thing,  at  least,  became  plain ;  that  whatever  might 
be  the  case  with  the  army,  financially  the  American  peo- 
ple had  a  leader  who  united  them  to  a  man,  and  under 
whose  guidance  the  vast  material  resources  of  the 
country  moved  in  solid  phalanx  to  support  its  needs. 

When  a  blade  does  good  service,  nothing  is  more 
natural  than  to  turn  and  read  upon  it  the  stamp  that 
tells  where  and  by  whom  it  was  fashioned ;  and  so 
when  we  see  the  quiet  and  serenity  in  which  our 
country  moved  on  under  its  burdens,  we  ask,  Whence 
comes  this  man  who  has  carried  us  so  smoothly  in  such 
a  storm  ? 

America  is  before  all  other  things  an  agricultural 
country,  and  her  aristocracy,  whether  of  talent  or 
wealth,  generally  trace  back  their  origin  to  a  farm. 
The  case  of  Secretary  Chase  is  no  exception. 

It  is  one  of  the  traditions  of  Dartmouth  College 
that  old  President  .Wheelock,  in  one  of  his  peregrina- 
tions, once  stopped  in  the  town  of  Cornish,  N.  H. ;  a 
place  where  the  Connecticut  river  flows  out  from  the 
embrace  of  the  White  Mountains.  Here  he  passed  a 
night  at  a  farm-house,  the  dwelling  of  Samuel  Chase, 
a  patriarchal  farmer,  surrounded  by  seven  sons,  as 
fine,  strong  and  intelligent  as  those  of  Jesse  of  Old 
Testament  renown.  The  President  used  his  visit  to 
plead  the  cause  of  a  college  education  for  these  fine 
youths  to  such  good  purpose,  that  five  of  the  boys, 
to  wit :  Salmon,  Baruch,  Heber,  Dudley  and  Philander 

became   graduates  of  Dartmouth  College.     Two  re- 
16 


244  SALMON   P.    CHASE. 

mained  to  share  the  labors  of  the  farm,  one  of  whom 
was  the  father  of  Secretary  Chase. 

All  the  boys  thus  educated  attained  more  than  the 
average  mark  in  society,  and  some  to  the  highest  dis- 
tinction. Dudley  Chase  was  one  of  the  most  distin- 
guished lawyers  and  politicians  of  New  England — a 
member  of  the  United  States  Senate,  and  for  many 
years  Chief  Justice  of  Vermont.  It  is  said  that  he 
was  so  enthusiastic  a  classical  scholar  that  he  carried  a 
Greek  Homer  and  Demosthenes  always  in  his  pocket, 
for  his  recreation  in  intervals  of  public  business.  He 
lived  to  a  patriarchal  age,  an  object  of  universal  ven- 
eration. 

Salmon  Chase,  another  brother,  was  a  lawyer  in 
Portland,  the  acknowledged  leader  of  that  distin- 
guished bar.  He  died  suddenly,  while  pleading  in 
court,  in  1806,  and  in  memorial  of  him  our  Secretary 
received  the  name  of  Salmon  Portland,  at  his  birth, 
which  occurred  in  1808.  The  youngest  of  the  grad- 
uates, Philander  Chase,  was  the  well-known  Episcopal 
Bishop  of  Ohio  and  Illinois.  He  was  the  guardian 
under  whose  auspices  the  education  of  Salmon  P. 
Chase  was  conducted. 

In  regard  to  Chase's  early  education,  we  have  not 
many  traditions.  His  parents  were  of  the  best  class 
of  New  Hampshire  farmers ;  Bible-reading,  thought- 
ful, shrewd,  closely  and  wisely  economical.  It  is  said 
that  in  that  region  literary  material  was  so  scarce  that 
the  boy's  first  writing  lessons  were  taken  on  strips  of 
birch  bark. 

When  his  father  died,  there  was  found  to  be  little 
property  for  the  support  of  the  family,  and  only  the 


HIS    UNCLE   AND    THE    BISHOP.  245 

small  separate  estate  of  his  mother  was  left.  She  was 
of  Scotch  blood — that  blood  which  is  at  once  shrewd, 
pious,  courageous  and  energetic,  and  was  competent 
to  make  a  little  serve  the  uses  of  a  great  deal. 

But  an  education,  and  a  college  education,  is  the 
goal  towards  which  such  mothers  in  New  England  set 
their  faces  as  a  flint — and  by  infinite  savings  and  un- 
known economies  they  compass  it. 

When  Chase  was  fourteen  years  old,  his  uncle,  the 
Bishop,  offered  to  take  and  educate  him,  and  he  went 
to  Ohio  along  with  an  elder  brother  who  was  attached 
to  Gen.  Cass's  expedition  to  the  upper  waters  of  the 
Mississippi. 

While  at  Buffalo  the  seniors  of  the  party  made  an 
excursion  to  Niagara,  but  had  no  room  in  their  vehicle 
for  the  boy.  Young  Chase,  upon  this,  with  character- 
istic energy,  picked  up  another  boy  who  wanted  to 
see  the  falls,  and  the  two  enterprising  young  gentle- 
men footed  it  through  the  snow  for  twenty  miles,  and 
saw  the  falls  in  company  with  their  elders. 

He  remained  two  years  with  the  Bishop,  who  was  a 
peremptory  man,  and  used  his  nephew  as  he  did  him- 
self and  everybody  else  about  him,  that  is,  made  him 
work  just  as  hard  as  he  could. 

The  great  missionary  Bishop  had  so  much  to  do, 
and  so  little  to  do  it  with,  that  he  had  to  make  up  for 
lack  of  money  by  incessant  and  severe  labor,  and  with 
such  help  as  he  could  get.  His  nephew  being  his 
own  flesh  and  blood,  he  felt  perhaps  at  liberty  to  drive 
a  little  more  sharply  than  the  rest,  as  that  is  the  form 
in  which  the  family  instinct  shows  itself  in  people  of 
his  character. 


246  SALMON    P.    CHASE. 

The  Bishop  supplemented  his  own  scanty  salary  by 
teaching  school  and  working  a  farm,  and  so  Salmon's 
preparatory  studies  were  seasoned  with  an  abundance 
of  severe  labor. 

The  youth  was  near  sighted,  and  troubled  with  an 
obstinate  lisp.  The  former  disability  was  incurable, 
but  the  latter  he  overcame  by  means  of  a  long  and 
persevering  course  of  reading  aloud. 

On  the  whole,  the  Bishop  seems  to  have  thought 
well  of  his  nephew,  for  one  day  in  refusing  him  leave 
to  go  in  swimming,  he  did  so  with  the  complimentary 
exclamation,  "Why,  Salmon,  the  country  might  lose 
its  future  President,  were  I  to  let  you  get  drowned." 

After  being  fitted  under  his  uncle,  Chase  entered 
Dartmouth  College. 

One  anecdote  of  Chase's  college  life  is  characteris- 
tic, as  showing  that  courageous  and  steady  sense  of 
justice  which  formed  a  leading  feature  of  his  after  life. 
One  of  his  classmates  was  sentenced  by  the  faculty  to 
be  expelled  from  college  on  a  charge  of  which  Chase 
knew  him  to  be  wholly  innocent.  Chase,  after  in  vain 
arguing  the  case  with  the  president,  finally  told  him 
that  he  would  go  too,  as  he  would  not  stay  in  an  insti- 
tution where  his  friends  were  treated  with  such  injustice. 
The  two  youths  packed  up  their  goods  and  drove  off. 
But  the  faculty  sent  word  after  them  almost  before 
they  had  got  out  of  the  village,  that  the  sentence  was 
rescinded  and  they  might  come  back.  They  said, 
however,  that  they  must  take  time  to  consider  whether 
they  would  do  so,  and  they  took  a  week,  having  a 
pleasant  vacation,  after  which  they  returned. 


*  MR.    chase's   uncle   THE   SENATOR.  247 

After  graduating,  IMr.  Chase  found  himself  depend- 
ent on  his  own  exertions  to  procure  his  support  in  his 
law  studies.  He  went  to  Washington  intending  to 
open  a  private  school.  He  waited  in  vain  for  scholars 
till  his  money  was  gone,  and  then,  feeling  discouraged, 
asked  his  uncle  the  Senator  to  get  him  an  office  under 
government. 

The  old  gentleman,  who  seems  to  have  been  about 
as  stern  in  his  manner  of  expressing  family  affection 
as  his  brother  the  Bishop,  promptly  refused: 

"  I'll  give  you  half  a  dollar  to  buy  you  a  spade  to  be- 
gin with,"  he  said,  "for  then  you  might  come  to  some- 
thing at  last,  but  once  settle  a  young  man  down  in  a 
government  ofi&ce,  he  never  does  any  thing  more — it's 
the  last  you  hear  of  him.  I've  ruined  one  or  two 
young  men  in  that  way,  and  I'm  not  going  to  ruin  you." 

Thus  with  stern  kindness  was  Chase  turned  off  from 
what  might  have  made  a  contented  common-place  man 
of  him,  and  pricked  up  to  the  career  which  gave  us  a 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury  and  a  Chief  Justice  of  the 
United  States.  He  succeeded  at  last  in  obtaining  the 
ownership  of  a  select  classical  school  already  estab- 
lished, while  he  pursued  his  legal  studies  under  the 
auspices  of  Wirt. 

In  1830  he  was  examined  for  admission  to  the  bar. 
At  the  close  of  the  examination  he  was  told  that  he 
had  better  read  for  another  year.  He  replied  that  he 
could  not  do  that,  as  he  was  aU  ready  to  commence 
practice  in  Cincinnati. 

"  Oh,  at  Cincinnati!"  replied  the  Judge,  as  if  any 
law  or  no  law  was  enough  for  such  a  backwoods  set- 
tlement— "  well  then,  ^Mr.  Clerk,  swear  in  ^Mr.  Chase." 


248  SALMON   P.    CHASE. 

His  early  days  of  legal  practice,  like  those  of  most 
young  lawyers,  were  days  of  waiting  and  poverty. 
The  only  professional  work  he  did  for  a  considerable 
time  was  to  draw  an  agreement  for  a  man,  who  paid 
him  half  a  dollar,  and  a  week  afterwards  came  and  bor- 
rowed it  back.  In  one  of  his  early  cases  he  had  occa- 
sion to  prove  the  bad  character  of  a  witness  who  was 
on  the  other  side,  on  which  the  fellow,  who  was  a  well 
known  rough,  threatened  to  "  have  his  blood,"  and 
undertook  to  assault  him.  But  as  the  rowdy  came  up 
at  the  close  of  the  court,  he  met  so  quiet  and  stern 
a  look  from  Mr.  Chase's  eyes  that  he  turned '  and 
sneaked  off  without  opening  his  mouth  or  raising  his 
hand. 

Mr.  Chase's  first  argument  before  a  United  States 
Court  was  at  Columbus,  0.,  in  1834  The  case  was  to 
him  a  very  important  one,  and  when  he  arose  to  make 
his  argument  he  found  himself  so  agitated  that  he 
could  not  utter  a  word.  He  had  therefore  to  sit  down, 
and  after  waiting  a  few  moments,  tried  again,  and 
made  his  plea.  After  he  was  through,  one  of  the 
Judges  came  to  him  and  shook  hands  with  him,  say- 
ing, "I  congratulate  you  most  sincerely."  Chase,  who 
was  feeling  very  disagreeably,  inquired  with  surprise 
what  he  was  congratulated  for  ? 

"  On  your  failure,"  answered  the  judge,  who  added, 
"A  person  of  ordinary  temperament  and  abilities 
would  have  gone  through  his  part  without  any  such 
symptoms  of  nervousness.  But  when  I  see  a  young 
man  break  down  once  or  twice  in  that  way,  I  conceive 
the  highest  hopes  of  him." 


SOCIETY  m   CINCIXNATI.  249 

This  may  have  been  interpreted  as  a  good  natured 
attempt  on  the  part  of  the  Judge  to  reassure  the  young 
lawyer,  but  there  is  a  deep  and  just  philosophy  in  it. 
The  class  of  men  who  have  what  Carlye  calls  "a  com- 
posed stupidity,  or  a  cheerful  infinitude  of  igno- 
rance," are  not  liable  ever  to  break  down  through  a 
high  sense  of  the  magnitude  of  their  task,  and  the  im- 
portance of  a  crisis.  Such  as  their  work  is,  they  are 
always  in  a  prepared  frame  of  mind  to  do  it. 

Although  the  Washington  judge  who  passed  ^Ir. 
Chase  into  the  legal  profession  had  so  small  an  opinion 
of  Cincinnati,  yet  no  place  could  have  afforded  a  finer 
and  more  agreeable  position  to  arising  young  man,  than 
that  city  in  those  days.  A  newly  settled  place,  having 
yet  lingering  about  it  some  of  the  wholesome  neighborly 
spirit  of  a  recent  colony — with  an  eclectic  society  drawn 
from  the  finest  and  best  cultivated  classes  of  each  of 
the  older  States,  there  was  in  the  general  tone  of  life 
a  breadth  of  ideas,  a  liberality  and  freedom,  which 
came  from  the  consorting  together  of  persons  of  dif- 
ferent habits  of  living. 

In  no  city  was  real  intellectual  or  moral  worth  in  a 
young  candidate  likely  to  meet  a  quicker  and  a  more 
appreciative  patronage. 

Gradually  Mr.  Chase  gained  the  familiar  entree  of  all 
that  was  worth  knowing,  and  was  received  with  hos- 
pitable openness  in  the  best  society.  His  fine  person, 
his  vigorous,  energetic  appearance,  and  the  record  of 
talent  and  scholarship  he  brought  with  him,  secured 
him,  in  time  the  patronage  of  the  best  families,  and  a 
valuable  and  extensive  practice.  His  industry  was  in- 
cessant, and  his  capability  of  sustained  labor  uncom- 


250  SALMON    P.    CHASE. 

mon,  as  may  be  gathered  from  the  fact  that  besides  the 
labors  of  his  office,  he  found  time  to  prepare  an  edi- 
tion of  the  Statutes  of  Ohio,  with  notes,  and  a  history 
of  the  State,  which  is  now  a  standard  authority  in  the 
Ohio  courts. 

.  In  the  outset  of  Chase's  career,  he,  like  Charles  Sum- 
ner, and  every  rising  young  American  of  his  time,  met 
the  great  test  question  of  the  age.  To  Chase  it  came 
in  the  form  of  an  application  to  plead  the  cause  of  a 
poor  black  woman,  claimed  as  a  fugitive  slave.  For  a 
rising  young  lawyer  to  take  in  hand  the  cause  of  a  poor 
black,  noiv,  would  bo  only  a  road  to  popularity  and 
fame.     But  then  the  case  was  far  otherwise. 

If  the  abolition  excitement  had  stirred  up  Boston  it 
had  convulsed  Cincinnati.  A  city  separated  from  slave 
territory  only  by  a  fordable  river,  was  likely  to  be  no 
quiet  theatre  for  such  discussions.  All  the  horrors,  all 
the  mean  frauds  and  shocking  cruelties  of  the  inter- 
state slave-trade,  were  enacting  daily  on  the  steamboats 
which  passed  before  the  city  on  the  Ohio  River,  and 
the  chained  gangs  of  broken-hearted  human  beings, 
torn  from  home  and  family,  to  be  shipped  to  Southern 
plantations,  were  often  to  be  seen  on  steamboats  lying 
at  the  levee. 

The  chapter  in  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin  called  "Select  Inci- 
dents of  Lawful  Trade"  was  no  fancy  painting.  It  was 
an  almost  literal  daguerreotype  of  scenes  which  the  au- 
thor of  that  book  had  witnessed  in  those  floating  palaces 
which  plied  between  Cincinnati  and  New  Orleans,  and 
where  too, above  in  the  cabin,  were  happy  mothers,  wives, 
husbands,  brothers  and  sisters,  rejoicing  in  secure  fam- 
ily affection,  and  on  the  deck  below,  miserable  shat- 


THE    OHIO   ABOLITIONISTS.  251 

tered  fragments  of  black  families,  wives  torn  from  hus- 
bands, children  without  mothers  and  mothers  without 
children,  with  poor  dumb  anxious  faces  going  they 
knew  not  whither,  to  that  awful  "down  river" — whence 
could  come  back  letter  or  tidings  never  more — for  sla- 
very took  care  that  slaves  should  write  no  letters. 

Such  scenes  as  these,  almost  daily  witnessed,  gave 
the  discussion  of  the  great  question  of  slavery  a  start- 
ling and  tangible  reality  which  it  never  could  have 
had  in  Boston.  For  the  credit  of  human  nature  we 
are  happy  to  state  that  the  Ohio  was  lined  all  along  its 
shores,  where  it  ran  between  free  and  slave  territory, 
with  a  chain  of  abolitionist  forts,  in  the  shape  of  soci- 
eties prosecuting  their  object  with  heroic  vigor ;  and 
what  made  the  controversy  most  peculiarly  intense 
was  the  assistance  which  these  abolitionists  stood  al- 
ways ready  to  give  to  the  escaping  fugitive.  For  a 
belt  of  as  much  as  fifty  miles  all  along  the  river,  the 
exertions  of  the  abolitionists  made  slave  property  the 
most  insecure  of  all  kinds  of  possessions. 

The  slave  power,  as  we  have  seen,  was  no  meek 
non-resistant,  and  between  it  and  the  abolitionists 
there  was  a  hand-to-hand  grapple,  with  a  short  knife, 
and  deadly  home  thrusts.  The  western  man  is  in  all 
things  outspoken  and  ardent ;  and  Garrison's  logical 
deductions  as  to  the  true  nature  of  slavery  came  mol- 
ten and  red  hot,  as  fired  from  the  guns  of  western  ab- 
olitionists. To  do  them  justice,  they  were  sublimely 
and  awfully  imprudent,  heroically  regardless  of  any 
considerations  but  those  of  abstract  truth  and  justice ; 
they  made  no  more  effort  to  palliate  slavery  or  concil- 
iate the  slaveholders  than  the  slaveholders  made  efforts 


252 


SALMON   P.    CHASE. 


to  palliate  their  doings,  or  conciliate  them.  War,  war 
to  the  knife,  was  the  word  on  both  sides,  the  only- 
difference  being  that  the  knife  of  the  abolitionist  was 
a  spiritual  one,  and  the  knife  of  the  slaveholders  a  lit- 
eral one. 

The  Lane  Theological  Seminary  was  taken  posses- 
sion of  as  an  anti-slavery  fortification  by  a  class  of 
about  twenty  vigorous,  radical  young  men,  headed 
by  that  brilliant,  eccentric  genius,  Theodore  D. 
Weld;  who  came  and  stationed  themselves  there  osten- 
sibly as  theological  students  under  Dr.  Beecher  and 
Professor  Stowe,  really  that  they  might  make  of  the 
Seminary  an  anti-slavery  fort. 

Now  at  this  time,  "good  society,"  so  called,  as  consti- 
tuted in  Cincinnati,  had  all  that  easy,  comfortable  in- 
difference to  the  fortunes  and  sufferings  of  people  not 
so  well  off  as  itself,  which  is  characteristic  of  good  soci- 
ety all  the  world  over.  It  is  so  much  easier  to  refine 
upon  one's  own  ideal  of  life,  to  carpet  one's  floors,  and 
list  one's  doors  and  windows  and  keep  out  the  cold, 
stormy  wind  of  debate  and  discussion,  than  it  is  to  go 
out  into  the  highways  and  hedges  and  keep  company 
with  the  never-ending  sins  and  miseries  and  misfor- 
tunes and  mistakes  of  poor,  heavy-laden  humanity, 
that  good  society  always  has  sat  as  a  dead  weight  on 
any  rising  attempt  at  reform. 

Then  again,  Cincinnati  was  herself  to  a  large  ex- 
tent a  slaveholding  city.  Her  property  was  in  slave- 
holding  states.  Negroes  were  negotiable  currency; 
they  were  collateral  security  on  half  the  contracts 
that  were  at  the  time  being  made  between  the  thriv- 
ing men  of  Cincinnati  and  the  planters  of  the  adjoin- 


CINCINNATI    ON   SLAVERY.  253 

ing  slave  states.  If  the  bold  doctrine  of  the  aboli- 
tionists was  true — if  slavery  was  stealing^  then  were 
the  church  members  in  the  fairest  Cincinnati  churches 
thieves — for  in  one  way  or  another,  they  were  to  a 
large  extent  often  the  holders  of  slaves. 

The  whole  secret  instinct  of  Cincinnati,  therefore, 
was  to  wish  that  slavery  might  in  some  way  be  defend- 
ed, because  Cincinnati  stood  so  connected  with  it  in 
the  way  of  trade,  that  conscientious  scruples  on  this 
point  were  infinitely  and  intolerably  disagreeable. 
The  whirlwind  zeal  of  the  abolitionists,  the  utter,  reck- 
less abandon  and  carelessness  of  forms  and  fashions 
with  which  they  threw  themselves  into  the  fight,  there- 
fore furnished  to  good  society  a  cloak  large  and  long, 
for  all  their  own  sins  of  neglect.  They  did  not  defend 
slavery,  of  course,  these  good  people — in  fact,  they 
regarded  it  as  an  evil.  They  were  properly  and  dec- 
orously religious — good  society  always  is,  and  so  wil- 
ling in  presbytery  and  synod  to  have  judiciously 
worded  resolutions  from  time  to  time  introduced,  re- 
gretting slavery  as  an  evil.  The  meetings  of  eccle- 
siastical bodies  afforded  at  this  time  examples  of  most 
dexterous  theological  hair-splitting  on  this  subject. 
Invariably  in  every  one  of  them,  were  the  abolitionists 
forward  and  fiery,  calling  slavery  by  that  ugly  old 
Saxon  word,  "a  sin."  Then  there  were  the  larger 
class  of  brethren,  longing  for  peace,  and  hating  in- 
iquity, who  had  sympathy  for  the  inevitable  difficulties 
which  beset  well-meaning  Christian  slaveholders  un- 
der slave  laws.  Now  if  these  consented  to  call  slavery  a 
sin,  they  imposed  on  themselves  the  necessity  of  either 
enforcing  immediate  repentance  and  change  of  life 


254  SALMON   P.    CHASE. 

on  the  sinner,  or  excluding  him  from  the  communion. 
So  they  obstinately  intrenched  themselves  in  the  dec- 
laration that  slavery  is — an  evil. 

When  a  synod  had  spent  all  its  spare  time  in  dis- 
cussing whether  slavery  ought  to  be  described  in  a  res- 
olution as  an  evil  or  as  a  moral  evil,  they  thought  they 
had  about  done  their  share  of  duty  on  the  subject; 
meanwhile,  between  the  two,  the  consciences  of  those 
elders  and  church  members  who  were  holding  slaves  on 
bond  and  mortgage,  or  sending  down  orders  to  sell  up 
the  hands  of  plantations  as  securities  for  their  debts, 
had  a  certain  troublous  peace. 

How  lucky  it  was  for  these  poor  tempest-tossed 
souls  that  the  abolitionists  were  so  imprudent  and  hot 
headed,  that  they  wore  garments  of  camel's  hair,  and 
were  girt  about  the  loins  with  a  leathern  girdle,  and 
did  eat  locusts  and  wild  honey,  being  altogether  an 
unpresentable,  shaggy,  unkempt,  impracticable  set  of 
John  the  Baptist  reformers.  Their  unchristian  spirit 
shocked  the  nerves  of  good  pious  people  far  more 
than  the  tearing  up  of  slave  families,  or  the  wholesale 
injustice  of  slavery.  "  The  abolitionists  do  things  in 
such  bad  taste,"  said  good  society,  "  that  it  really  makes 
it  impossible  for  us  to  touch  the  subject  at  all,  lest  we 
should  become  mixed  up  with  them,  and  responsible 
for  their  proceedings."  To  become  mixed  up  with  and 
responsible  for  the  proceedings  of  sla^-eholders,  slave- 
traders,  and  slave-drivers,  who  certainly  exhibited  no 
more  evidences  of  good  taste  in  their  manner  of  hand- 
ling subjects,  did  not  somehow  strike  good  society  at 
this  time  as  equally  pbjectionable. 


MR.    CHASE    IN   THE    BIRNEY   MOB.  255 

It  had  got  to  be  a  settled  and  received  doctrine  that 
the  impudent  abolitionists  had  created  such  a  state  of 
irritation  in  the  delicate  nerves  of  the  slaveholding 
power,  that  all  good  Christian  people  were  bound  to 
unite  in  a  general  effort  to  calm  irritation  by  suppress- 
ing all  discussion  of  the  subject. 

"When,  therefore,  James  G.  Birney,  a  southern  abo- 
litionist, who  had  earned  a  right  to  be  heard,  by  first 
setting  free  his  own  slaves,  came  to  Cincinnati  and  set 
up  an  abolition  paper,  there  was  a  boiling  over  of 
the  slaveholding  fury.  For  more  than  a  week  Cincin- 
nati lay  helpless  in  a  state  of  semi-sack  and  siege,  trod 
under  the  heels  of  a  mob  led  by  Kentucky  bullies  and 
slave-traders.  They  sacked  Birney's  anti-slavery  ofl&ce, 
broke  up  his  printing  press  and  threw  the  types  into 
the  river,  and  then  proceeded  to  burn  negro  houses, 
and  to  beat  and  maltreat  defenceless  women  and  chil- 
dren, after  the  manner  of  such  evil  beasts  generally. 

At  the  time  the  mob  were  busy  destroying  the 
printing  press,  Mr.  Chase  threw  himself  in  among 
them  with  a  view  to  observe,  and  if  possible  to  ob- 
struct their  proceedings. 

He  gathered  from  their  threats  while  the  process  of 
sacking  the  ofl&ce  was  going  on,  that  their  next  attack 
would  be  on  the  life  of  Mr.  Birney.  On  hearing  this, 
he  hastened  before  them  to  Mr.  Birney's  hotel,  and 
stood  in  the  door-way  to  meet  them  when  they  came 
up. 

No  test  of  personal  courage  or  manliness  is  greater 
than  thus  daring  to  stand  and  oppose  a  mob  in  the 
full  flush  of  lawless  triumph.  Mr.  Chase  had  a  fine 
commanding  person,  and  perfect  courage  and  coolness, 


256  SALMON   P.    CHASE. 

and  he  succeeded  in  keeping  back  the  mob,  by  argu- 
ing with  them  against  lawless  acts  of  violence  to  per- 
sons or  property,  until  Birney  had  had  time  to  escape. 

The  upper  ten  of  Cincinnati,  when  tranquility  was 
once  more  restored  to  that  community,  were  of  course 
very  much  shocked  and  scandalized  by  the  proceedings 
of  the  mob,  but  continued  to  assert  that  all  these  do- 
ings were  the  fault  of  the  abolitionists.  What  could 
be  expected  if  they  would  continue  discussions  which 
made  our  brethren  across  the  river  so  uncomfortable  ? 
If  nobody  would  defend  the  rights  of  negroes  there 
would  be  no  more  negro  mobs,  and  good  society  be- 
came increasingly  set  in  the  belief  that  speaking  for 
the  slave  in  any  way  whatever  was  actually  to  join  the 
abolitionists,  and  to  become  in  fact  a  radical,  a  disor- 
ganizer,  a  maker  of  riots  and  disturbances. 

No  young  lawyer  who  acted  merely  from  humane 
sentiment,  or  common  good  natured  sympathy,  would 
have  dared  at  that  time  to  plead  a  slave's  cause  against 
a  master's  claim.  Then  and  always  there  were  a  plen- 
ty of  people  to  feel  instinctive  compassion,  and  in  fact 
slily  to  give  a  hunted  fugitive  a  lift,  if  sure  not  to  lose 
by  it — but  to  take  up  and  plead  professionally  a  slave's 
cause  against  a  master  was  a  thing  which  no  young 
man  could  do  without  making  up  his  mind  to  be  count- 
ed as  one  of  the  abolitionists,  and  to  take  upon  his 
shoulders  the  whole  responsibility  of  being  identified 
with  them. 

Mr.  Chase  was  a  man  particularly  alive  to  the  value 
of  all  the  things  which  he  put  in  peril  by  such  a 
step.  He  had  a  remarkable  share  of  what  is  called 
the  "  Yankee  "  nature,  which  values  and  appreciates 


HOW   MR.    CHASE    " RUINED    HIMSELF.  257 

material  good.  He  had  begun  poor,  and  he  knew  ex- 
actly what  a  hard  thing  poverty  was.  He  had  beo-un 
at  the  bottom  of  the  social  ladder,  and  he  knew  exactly 
how  hard  it  was  to  climb  to  a  good  position.  He  had 
just  got  such  a  position,  and  he  truly  appreciated  it. 
His  best  patrons  and  warmest  friends  now,  with  earnest- 
ness warned  him  not  to  listen  to  the  voice  of  his 
feelings,  and  take  that  course  which  would  iden- 
tify him  with  the  fanatical  abolitionists.  They  told  him 
that  it  would  be  social  and  political  death  to  him  to 
take  a  step  in  that  direction. 

For  all  that,  when  the  case  of  the  slave  girl  ^Matilda 
was  brought  to  his  door  he  defended  it  deliberately, 
earnestly  and  with  all  his  might.  Of  course  it  was  de- 
cided against  him,  as  in  those  days,  such  cases  were  sure 
to  be. 

As  Chase  left  the  court  room  after  making  his  plea 
in  this  case,  a  man  looked  after  him  and  said,  "  There 
goes  a  fine  young  fellow  who  has  just  ruined  himself" 
Listening,  however,  to  this  very  speech  was  a  public 
man  of  great  ability  whose  efforts  afterwards  went  a 
long  way  towards  making  Chase  United  States  Senator; 
and  to-day  we  see  that  same  young  lawyer  on  the 
bench,  Chief  Justice  of  the  United  States. 

The  decision  of  Chase  in  this  matter  was  not  merely 
from  the  temporary  impulse  of  kindly  feelings,  but 
from  a  deep  political  insight  into  the  tendencies  and 
workings  of  the  great  slave  power.  His  large,  sound, 
logical  brain  saw  in  the  future  history  of  that  jDOwer 
all  that  it  has  since  brought  to  light.  He  saw  that 
the    exorbitant  spirit  of  its  exactions  was   directed 


258  SALMON   P.    CHASE. 

against  the  liberties  of  the  free  States  and  the  princi- 
ples on  which  free  government  is  founded. 

The  plea  of  Chase,  in  this  case,  was  the  first  legal 
break-water  in  Ohio  to  the  flood  of  usurpation  and  dic- 
tation which  has  characterized  the  slaveocracy  from 
its  commencement.  In  this  plea  he  took  a  ground 
then  unheard  of,  to  wit :  That  the  phrase  in  the  Con- 
stitution which  demanded  the  giving  up  of  fugitives 
to  service  on  demand  of  masters,  did  not  impose  on 
the  magistrates  of  the  free  States  the  responsibility  of 
catching  and  returning  slaves.  He  denied  that  Con- 
gress had  any  right  to  impose  any  such  duties  on 
State  magistrates,  or  to  employ  State  resources  in  any 
way  for  this  purpose.  This  principle  was  afterwards 
recognized  by  the  United  States  in  the  slave  law  of 
1850,  by  appointing  special  United  States  Commis- 
sioners for  the  conducting  of  such  cases. 

From  the  time  of  this  plea  many  of  the  former  pat- 
rons and  friends  of  the  rising  young  lawyer  walked 
no  more  with  him  ;  but  he  had  taken  his  ground  like 
a  strong  man  armed,  and  felt  well  able  to  keep  his 
fortress  single  handed  till  recruits  should  gather  around 
him. 

He  was  soon  called  on  to  defend  James  G.  Birney 
for  the  crime  of  sheltering  a  fugitive  slave.  In  this 
plea  he  asserted  the  great  principle  afterwards  afiSrmed 
by  Charles  Sumner  in  Congress,  that  slavery  is  sec- 
tional and  freedom  national.  As  slavery  was  but  a 
local  institution,  he  claimed  that  it  ceased  when  the 
slave  was  brought  by  his  master  to  a  free  State.  This 
assertion  caused  great  excitement  in  a  community 
separated  from  a  slave  State  only  by  the  Ohio,  where 


THE  VAN  ZANDT  CASE.  259 

slave  masters  were  constantly  finding  it  convenient  to 
cross  with  their  slaves,  or  to  send  them  across,  to  the 
neio-hboring  city.  Of  course  the  decision  went  against 
him.  What  judge  who  had  any  hopes  of  the  presi- 
dency, or  the  Supreme  Bench,  would  dare  ofi'end  his 
southern  masters  by  any  other  ? 

In  1846  came  on  the  great  Yan  Zandt  case.  Van 
Zandt  was  originally  a  thriving  Kentucky  farmer  and 
slave  owner.  He  figured  in  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin  under 
the  name  of  Yan  Tromp.  He  was  a  man  who,  under 
a  shaggy  exterior,  had  a  great,  kind,  honest  heart,  and 
in  that  day,  when  ministers  and  elders  were  studying 
the  Bible  to  find  apologies  for  slavery,  Yan  Zandt 
needed  no  other  light  than  that  of  this  same  heart  to 
teach  him  that  it  was  vile  and  devilish,  and  so,  settipg 
his  slaves  free,  he  came  over  and  bought  a  farm  in  the 
neighborhood  of  Cincinnati ;  and  it  was  well  known 
that  no  hungry,  wandering  fugitive  was  ever  turned 
from  Yan  Zandt's  door.  The  writer  has  still  memory 
of  the  wild  night  ride  of  husband  and  brother  through 
woods,  and  over  swelled  creeks  dangerous  enough  to 
cross,  which  carried  a  poor,  hunted  slave  girl  to  this 
safe  retreat.  But  Yan  Zandt  was  at  last  found  out, 
and  the  slaveocrats  brought  suit  against  him.  Chase 
and  Seward  defended  him,  and  made  noble  pleas — 
pleas  as  much  for  the  rights  of  the  whites  as  of  the 
blacks.  Of  course,  like  all  cases  of  the  kind  at  that 
date,  the  judgment  had  been  pre-ordained  before  the 
court  sat.  Chase's  elaborate  and  unanswerable  argu- 
ment before  the  United  States  Court,  was  afterward 
printed  in  a  pamphlet  of  some  thi'ee  hundi'ed  and  fifty 
octavo  pages.      ^ 


260 


SALMON   P.    CHASE. 


The  opening  of  this  great  plea  and  its  close  we  shall 
quote  as  best  showing  the  solemn  and  earnest  spirit 
in  which  this  young  lawyer  entered  upon  his  wdtk. 
"Mr.  Chief  Justice  and  Judges: 

I  beg  leave  to  submit  to  your  consideration  an  argu- 
ment in  behalf  of  an  old  man,  who  is  charged,  under 
the  act  of  Congress  of  February  12,  1793,  with  hav- 
ing concealed  and  harbored  a  fugitive  slave. 

Oppressed,  and  well  nigh  borne  down  by  the  pain- 
ful consciousness,  that  the  principles  and  positions 
which  it  will  be  my  duty  to  maintain,  can  derive  no 
credit  whatever  from  the  reputation  of  the  advocate,  I 
have  spared  no  pains  in  gathering  around  them  whatev- 
er of  authority  and  argument  the  most  careful  research 
and  the  most  deliberate  reflection  could  supply.  I 
have  sought  instruction  wherever  I  could  find  it ;  I 
have  looked  into  the  reported  decisions  of  almost 
all  the  state  courts,  and  of  this  court ;  I  have  ex- 
amined and  compared  state  legislation  and  federal; 
above  all,  I  have  consulted  the  constitution  of  the 
Union,  and  the  history  of  its  formation  and  adoption. 
I  have  done  this,  because  I  am  well  assured,  that  the 
issues,  now  presented  to  this  court  for  solemn  adjudi- 
cation, reach  to  whatever  is  dear  in  constitutional 
liberty,  and  what  is  precious  in  political  union.  Not 
John  Yan  Zandt  alone — not  numerous  individuals  only 
— but  the  States  also,  and  the  Nation  itself,  must  be 
deeply  affected  by  the  decision  to  be  pronounced  in 
this  case." 

Then  followed  the  technical  and  legal  plea  which 
is  a  most  close  and  unanswerable  legal  argument,  show- 


THE   VA2f   ZANDT    CASE.  261 

ing  conclusively  that  tinder  the  words  of  the  statute 
the  defendant  could  not  be  held  guilty. 

After  this,  follows  a  clear  and  masterly  argument  on 
the  unconstitutionality  of  the  then  existing  fugitive 
slave  law,  of  1793.  In  this.  Chase  took  with  great 
skill,  boldness,  ingenuity  and  learning,  the  same 
course  afterwards  taken  by  Sumner  in  his  great  speech 
before  Congress,  on  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law  of  1850. 

The  conclusion  is  solemn  and  weighty — and  in  the 
light  of  recent  events  has  even  a  prophetic  power : 

"Upon  questions, — such  as  are  some  of  those  involved 
in  this  case, — which  partake  largely  of  a  moral  and  po- 
litical nature,  the  judgment,  even  of  this  Court,  can- 
not be  regarded  as  altogether  final.  The  decision,  to 
be  made  here,  must,  necessarily,  be  rejudged  at  the 
tribunal  of  public  opinion — the  opinion,  not  of  the 
American  People  only,  but  of  the  Civilized  World. 
At  home,  as  is  well  known,  a  growing  disaffection  to 
the  Constitution  prevails,  founded  upon  its  supposed  al- 
lowance and  support  of  Human  Slavery ;  abroad,  the 
national  character  suffers  under  the  saijie  reproach.  I 
most,  earnestly  hope,  and, — I  trust  it  may  not  be 
deemed  too  serious  to  add, — I  most  earnestly  pray,  that 
the  judgment  of  your  honors  in  this  case,  may  com- 
mend itself  to  the  reason  and  conscience  of  Mankind  ; 
that  it  may  rescue  the  Constitution  from  the  undeserv- 
ed opprobrium  of  lending  its  sanction  to  the  idea  that 
there  may  be  property  in  men;  that  it  may  gath- 
er around  that  venerable  charter  of  Republican  Gov- 
ernment the  renewed  affection  and  confidence  of  a 
generous  People  ;  and  that  it  may  win  for  American 
Institutions  the  warm  admiration  and  profound  hom- 


262  SALMON   P.    CHASE. 

age  of  all,  who,  everywhere,  love  Liberty  and  revere 
Justice." 

The  question  was  decided  as  all  such  cases  in  those 
times  invariably  were  decided. 

The  Judge  never  undertook  even  the  form  of  an- 
swering the  argument ;  never  even  adverted  to  it,  but 
decided  directly  over  it,  with  a  composure  worthy  of  a 
despotism.  It  was  a  decision  only  equalled  by  that  of 
the  most  corrupt  judges  of  the  corrupt  age  of  Charles 
11. 

Honest  Yan  Zandt  was  ruined,  "scot  and  lot,"  by  a 
fine  so  heavy  that  all  he  had  in  the  world  would  not 
pay  it,  and  he  died  broken-hearted ;  a  solemn  warn- 
ing to  all  in  his  day,  how  they  allowed  themselves  to 
practise  Christian  charity  in  a  way  disagreeable  to  the 
plantation  despots. 

As  for  Chase,  he  was  undiscouraged  by  ill  success, 
and  shortly  reaffirmed  his  argument  and  principles  in 
the  case  of  Driskull  vs.  Parish.  He  was  at  least  edu 
eating  the  community ;  he  was  laying  foundations  of 
resistance  on  which  walls  and  towers  should  by-and-by 
arise.  Humanity  and  religion  had  already  made  the 
abolitionists  numerically  a  large  and  active  body  in 
Ohio.  They  needed  only  a  leader  like  Chase,  of  large 
organizing  brain  and  solid  force  of  combination,  to  shape 
them  into  a  political  party  of  great  efficiency.  To  this 
end  his  efforts  were  henceforth  directed.  In  1841,  he 
united  in  a  call  for  an  Anti-Slavery  Convention  in  Co- 
lumbus, and  in  this  convention  was  organized  the  Lib- 
erty party  of  Ohio.  In  1845  he  projected  a  South- 
western Anti-Slavery  Convention. 


ME.    CHASE   m  ANTI-SLAVERY  POLITICS.  263 

The  ground  taken  was  substantially  that  to  which  a 
bloody,  weary  experience  has  brought  the  whole  na- 
tion now,  to  wit:  "That  whatever  is  worth  preserving 
in  republicanism  can  be  maintained  only  by  uncom- 
promising war  against  an  usurping  slave-power,  and 
that  all  who  wish  to  save  the  nation  must  unite  in 
using  all  constitutional  measures  for  the  extinction  of 
slavery  in  their  own  States,  and  the  reduction  of  it  to 
constitutional  limits  in  the  United  States. 

This  convention  met  in  Cincinnati,  in  1845,  and 
Chase  prepared  the  address,  giving  the  history  of 
slavery  thus  far,  and  showing  the  condition  of  the 
Whig  and  Democratic  parties  respecting  it ;  and  urg- 
ing the  importance  of  a  political  combination  une- 
quivocally committed  to  the  denationalizing  of  slavery 
and  the  slave  power.  So  vigorous  were  the  tactics  of 
this  party,  so  strongly  moving  with  the  great  central 
currents  of  God's  forward  providences,  that  in  1847 
Chase  was  made  Governor  of  Ohio,  by  the  triumph  of 
those  very  principles  which  in  the  outset  threatened 
utter  loss  to  their  advocate.  In  1847  he  attended  a 
second  Liberty  Convention ;  and  afterwards  took  part 
in  the  Buffalo  Convention,  the  celebrated  Bufialo  Plat- 
form being  mainly  his  work. 

In  1849,  he  was  chosen  United  States  Senator  from 
Ohio,  and  his  presence  was  hailed  as  a  tower  of  strength 
to  the  hard  fighting  anti-slavery  party  at  Washington. 
When,  directly  after  the  passage  of  the  Fugitive  Slave 
Law,  the  Democratic  party  in  Ohio  voted  for  Pierce, 
knowing  him  directly  committed  to  its  enforcement, 
Chase  withdrew  from  it,  and  addressed  a  letter  to  B. 
F.  Butler,  of  New  York,  recommending  the  formation 


264  SALMON    P.    CHASE. 

of  an  Independent  Democratic  party.  He  prepared 
a  platform  for  this  purpose,  which  was  substantially 
adopted  by  the  convention  of  the  Independent  Dem- 
ocracy of  1852. 

And  now  came  on  the  battle  of  Kansas  and  Nebras- 
ka. Chase  was  one  of  the  first  to  awaken  the  people 
to  this  new  danger.  He,  in  conference  with  the  anti- 
slavery  men  of  Congress,  drafted  an  address  to  the 
people  to  arouse  them  as  to  this  sudden  and  appalling 
conspiracy,  which  was  intended  to  seize  for  slavery  all 
the  unoccupied  land  of  the  United  States,  and  turn 
the  balance  of  power  and  numbers  forever  into  the 
slaveholders'  hands.  It  was  a  critical  moment ;  there 
was  but  little  time  to  spare ;  but  the  whole  united 
clergy  of  New  England,  of  all  denominations.  Catholic 
and  Protestant,  found  leisure  to  send  in  their  solemn 
protest.  When  that  nefarious  bill  passed.  Chase  pro- 
tested against  it  on  the  night  of  its  passage,  as,  with 
threats,  and  oaths,  and  curses,  it  was  driven  through. 
It  seems  in  the  retrospect  but  a  brief  passage  from 
that  hour  of  apparent  defeat  to  the  hour  which  beheld 
Lincoln  in  the  presidential  chair  and  Chase,  Secretary 
of  the  Treasury.  His  history  in  that  position  has  ver- 
ified the  sagacity  that  placed  him  there.  It  has  been 
the  success  of  a  large,  sound,  organizing  brain,  apt 
and  skillful  in  any  direction  in  which  it  should  turn  its 
powers.  It  was  the  well-known  thrift  and  shrewdness 
of  the  Yankee  farmer,  thrift  and  shrewdness  cultivated 
in  years  of  stern  wrestling  with  life,  coming  out  at  the 
head  of  the  United  States  treasury  in  a  most  critical 
hour.  No  men  are  better  to  steer  through  exigencies 
than  these  same  Yankee  farmers,  and  it  seems  the  sa- 


QUALIFICATIONS   AS   A   FINANCIER.  265 

vor  of  this  faculty  goes  to  the  second  and  third  gene- 
rations. 

We  have  said  before,  that  if  Chase  made  sacrifices 
of  tangible  and  material  present  values  for  abstract 
principles,  in  his  early  days,  it  was  not  because,  as  is 
sometimes  the  case,  he  was  a  man  merely  of  ideas, 
and  destitute  of  practical  faculties.  On  the  contrary, 
the  shrewd,  cautious,  managing,  self-preserving  facul- 
ties were  possessed  by  him  to  a  degree  which  caused 
him  to  be  often  spoken  of  by  the  familiar  proverb, 
"a  man  who  can  make  every  edge  cut."  By  nature, 
by  descent,  by  hard  and  severe  training,  he  was  a 
rigid  economist,  and  a  man  who  might  always  safely 
be  trusted  to  make  the  very  most  and  best  of  a  given 
amount  of  property. 

It  is  praise  enough  to  any  financier  who  could  take 
a  nation  in  the  sudden  and  unprepared  state  ours  was, 
and  could  carry  it  along  for  three  or  four  years  through 
a  war  of  such  gigantic  expenditure,  to  say  that  the  coun- 
try was  neither  ruined,  beggared,  nor  hopelessly  embar- 
rassed, but  standing  even  stronger  when  he  resigned 
the  treasury  than  when  he  took  it. 

His  financial  management  was  at  first  to  raise  the 
money  needed  for  the  war  by  loans,  until  the  expen- 
ses became  so  great  as  to  be  beyond  the  capacity  of 
the  specie  in  the  country.  Then,  still  adhering  to  the 
principle  of  raising  the  means  for  the  war  within  the 
United  States,  he  introduced  the  legal  tender  paper 
currency,  and  by  providing  that  it  should  be  a  necessa- 
ry basis  for  banking  operations,  he  shrewdly  placed  the 
whole  banking  capital  of  the  United  States  in  a  position 
where  it  must  live  or  die  with  the  country.     This  not 


266  SALMON    P.    CHASE.  ♦ 

only  provided  funds,  but  made  every  dollar  of  money 
act  as  a  direct  stimulus  to  the  patriotism  of  those  who 
suj)plied  it. 

On  June  30,  1864,  Chase  resigned  his  position  in 
the  treasury.  That  Providence  which  has  prdained  so 
many  striking  and  peculiar  instances  of  victory  and 
reward  for  men  who  espoused  the  cause  of  humanity 
in  its  dark  hours,  had  also  one  for  Chase. 

Oct.  12,  1864,  by  the  death  of  Taney,  the  Chief 
Justiceship  of  the  United  States  Supreme  Court  be- 
came vacant,  and  Lincoln  expressed  the  sense  of  the 
whole  American  people  in  calling  Chase  to  fill  that  ven- 
erable office. 

The  young  lawyer,  who  without  name  or  prestige, 
dared  to  put  in  pleas  for  the  poorest  of  his  brethren, 
when  the  slave  power  was  highest  and  haughtiest,  and 
whose  pleas  were  overruled  with  the  most  chilling 
contempt,  now  by  God's  providence  holds  that  su- 
preme position  on  the  national  bench  from  which,  let 
us  trust,  the  oppressor  and  the  tyrant  have  faded  away 
forever ! 


■2ngfTTfAHBit<^W* 


CHAPTER  VI. 

HENRY    WILSON. 

Lincoln,  Chase  and  "Wilson  as  Illustrations  of  Democracy — Wilson's  Biith  and 
Boyhood — Reads  over  One  Thousand  Books  in  Ten  Years — Learns  Shoemak- 
ing — Earns  an  Education  Twice  Over — Forms  a  Debating  Society — Makes 
Sixty  Speeches  for  HaiTison — Enters  into  Political  Life  on  the  Working-]Men's 
Side — Helps  to  form  tlie  Free  Soil  Party — Chosen  United  States  Senator  over 
Edward  Everett — Aristocratic  Politics  in  those  Days — Wilson  and  the  Slave- 
holding  Senators — The  Character  of  his  Speaking — Full  of  Facts  and  Practi- 
cal Sense — His  Usefulness  as  Chairman  of  die  Military  Coimnittce — His  "His- 
tory of  the  Anti-Slavery  Measures  in  Congress" — The  37th  and  38th  Congresses 
— The  Summary  of  Anti-Slavery  Legislation  from  that  Book — Other  Aboli- 
tionist Forces — Contrast  of  Sentiments  of  Slavery  and  of  Freedom— Recoum- 
tion  of  Hayti  and  Libeiia ;  Specimen  of  the  Debate — Slave  and  Free  Doctrine 
on  Education — Equality  in  Washington  Street  Cars — Pro-Slavery  Good  Taste 
— Solon's  Ideal  of  Democracy  Reached  in  America. 

It  is  interesting  to  notice  liow,  in  the  recent  strug- 
gle that  has  convulsed  our  country  and  tried  our  re- 
publican institutions,  so  many  of  the  men  "who  have 
held  the  working  oar  have  been  representative  men 
of  the  people.  To  a  great  extent  they  have  been 
men  who  have  grown  up  with  no  other  early  worldly 
advantages  than  those  which  a  democratic  republic 
offers  to  every  citizen  born  upon  her  soil.  Lincoln 
from  the  slave  states,  and  Chase  and  Henry  Wilson  in 
the  free,  may  be  called  the  peculiar  sons  of  Democra- 
cy. That  hard  Spartan  mother  trained  them  early  on 
her  black  broth  to  her  fatigues,  and  wrestlings,  and 
watchings,  and  gave  them  their  shields  on  entering 
the  battle  of  life  with  only  the  Spartan  mother's  brief 
■ — "With  this,  or  upon  this." 

269 


270  HENRY   WT^LSON. 

Native  force  and  Democratic  institutions  raised  Lin- 
coln to  the  highest  seat  in  the  nation,  and  to  no  mean 
seat  among  the  nations  of  the  earth ;  and  the  same 
forces  in  Massachusetts  caused  that  State,  in  an  hour 
of  critical  battle  for  the  great  principles  of  democratic 
liberty,  to  choose  Henry  Wilson,  the  self-taught,  fear- 
less shoemaker's  apprentice  of  Natick,  over  the  head 
of  the  gifted  and  graceful  Everett,  the  darling  of  for- 
eign courts,  the  representative  of  all  the  sentiments  and 
training  which  transmitted  aristocratic  ideas  have  yet 
left  in  Boston  and  Cambridge.  All  this  was  part  and 
parcel  of  the  magnificent  drama  which  has  been  acting 
on  the  stage  of  this  country  for  the  hope  and  consola- 
tion of  all  who  are  born  to  labor  and  poverty  in  all 
nations  of  the  world. 

Henry  Wilson,  our  present  United  States  Senator, 
was  born  at  Farmington,  N.  H.,  Feb.  12,  1818,  of  very 
poor  parents.  At  the  age  of  ten  he  was  bound  to  a 
farmer  till  he  was  twenty-one.  Here  he  had  the  usual 
lot  of  a  farm  boy — plain,  abundant  food,  coarse  cloth- 
ing, incessant  work,  and  a  few  weeks'  schooling  at  the 
district  school  in  winter. 

In  these  ten  years  of  toil,  the  boy,  by  twilight,  fire- 
light, and  on  Sundays,  had  read  over  one  thousand 
volumes  of  history,  geography,  biography  and  general 
literature,  borrowed  from  the  school  libraries  and 
from  those  of  generous  individuals. 

At  twenty-one  he  was  his  own  master,  to  begin  the 
world ;  and  in  looking  over  his  inventory  for  starting 
in  life,  found  only  a  sound  and  healthy  body,  and  a 
mind  trained  to  reflection  by  solitary  thought.  He 
went  to  Natick,  Mass.,  to  learn  the  trade  of  a  shoe- 


ENTRANCE    INTO    POLITICAL   LIFE.  271 

njaker,  and  in  working  at  it  two  years,  he  saved  enough 
money  to  attend  the  academy  at  Concord  and  Wolfs- 
borough,  N.  H.  But  the  man  with  whom  he  had  de- 
posited his  hard  earnings  became  insolvent ;  the  money 
he  had  toiled  so  long  for,  vanished;  and  he  was 
obliged  to  leave  his  studies,  go  back  to  Natick  and 
make  more.  Undiscouraged,  he  resolved  still  to  pur- 
sue his  object,  uniting  it  with  his  daily  toil.  He  form- 
ed a  debating  society  among  the  young  mechanics  of 
the  place ;  investigated  subjects,  read,  wrote  and 
spoke  on  all  the  themes  of  the  day,  as  the  spirit  with- 
in him  gave  him  utterance.  Among  his  fellow-me- 
chanics, some  others  were  enkindled  by  his  influence, 
and  are  now  holding  high  places  in  the  literary  and 
diplomatic  world. 

In  1840,  young  Wilson  came  forward  as  a  public 
speaker.  He  engaged  in  the  Harrison  election  cam- 
paign, made  sixty  speeches  in  about  four  months, 
and  was  well  repaid  by  his  share  in  the  triumph  of 
the  party.  He  was  then  elected  to  the  Massachusetts 
Legislature  as  representative  from  Natick. 
.  Having  entered  life  on  the  working  man's  side,  and 
known  by  his  own  experience  the  working  man's  trials, 
temptations  and  hard  struggles,  he  felt  the  sacredness 
of  a  poor  man's  labor,  and  entered  public  life  with  a 
heart  to  take  the  part  of  the  toiling  and  the  oppressed. 

Of  course  he  was  quick  to  feel  that  the  great  ques- 
tion of  our  time  was  the  question  of  labor  and  its 
rights  and  rewards.  He  was  quick  to  feel  the  "irre- 
pressible conflict,"  which  Seward  so  happily  designa- 
ted, between  the  two  modes  of  society  existing  in 
America,  and  to  know  that  they  must  fight  and  strug- 


272  HENRY    WILSON. 

gle  till  one  of  them  tlirottled  and  killed  the  other  j 
and  prompt  to  understand  this,  he  made  his  early  elec- 
tion to  live  or  die  on  the  side  of  the  laboring  poor, 
whose  most  oppressed  type  was  the  African  slave. 

In  the  Legislature,  he  introduced  a  motion  against 
the  extension  of  slave  territory;  and  in  1845,  went 
with  Whittier  to  Washington  with  the  remonstrance 
of  Massachusetts  against  the  admission  of  Texas  as  a 
slave  State. 

When  the  Whig  party  became  inefficient  in  the 
cause  of  liberty  through  too  much  deference  to  the 
slave  power,  Henry  Wilson,  like  Charles  Sumner,  left 
it,  and  became  one  of  the  most  energetic  and  efficient 
organizers  in  forming  the  Free  Soil  party  of  Massa- 
chusetts. In  its  interests,  he  bought  a  daily  paper  in. 
Boston,  which  for  some  time  he  edited  with  great 
ability. 

Meanwhile,  he  rose  to  one  step  of  honor  after 
another,  in  his  adopted  State ;  he  became  President 
of  the  Massachusetts  Senate ;  and  at  length  after  a 
well  contested  election,  was  sent  to  take  the  place  of 
the  accomplished  Everett  in  the  United  States  Senate. 

His  election  was  a  sturdy  triumph  of  principle.  His 
antagonist  had  every  advantage  of  birth  and  breeding, 
every  grace  which  early  leisure,  constant  culture,  and 
the  most  persevering,  conscientious  selfeducation 
could  afford.  He  was,  in  graces  of  person,  manners 
and  mind,  the  ideal  of  Massachusetts  aristocracy,  but 
he  wanted  that  clear  insight  into  actual  events,  which 
early  poverty  and  labor  had  given  to  his  antagonist. 
His  sympathies  in  the  great  labor  question  of  the  land 
•were  with  the  graceful  and  cultivated  aristocrats  rather 


WILSON   AND    THE    SLAVEHOLDING    SENATE.  273 

than  the  clumsy,  ungainly  laborer ;  and  he  but  pro- 
fessed the  feeling  of  all  aristocrats  in  saying  at  the 
outset  of  his  political  life,  while  Wilson  was  yet  a  child, 
that  in  the  event  of  a  servile  insurrection,  he  would 
be  among  the  first  to  shoulder  a  musket  to  defend  the 
masters. 

But  the  great  day  of  the  Lord  was  at  hand.  The 
events  which  since  have  unrolled  in  fire  and  blood, 
had  begun  their  inevitable  course  ;  and  the  plain  work- 
ing-man was  taken  by  the  hand  of  Providence  towards 
the  high  places  where  he,  with  other  working  men, 
should  shape  the  destiny  of  the  labor  question  for  this 
age  and  for  all  ages. 

Wilson  went  to  Washington  in  the  very  heat  and 
fervor  of  that  conflict  which  the  gigantic  Giddings, 
with  his  great  body  and  unflinching  courage,  said  to  a 
friend,  was  to  him  a  severer  trial  of  human  nerve  than 
the  facing  of  cannon  and  bullets.  The  slave  aristoc- 
racy had  come  down  in  great  wrath,  as  if  knowing 
that  its  time  was  short.  The  Senate  chamber  rang 
with  their  oaths  and  curses  as  they  tore  and  raged  like 
wild  beasts  against  those  whom  neither  their  blandish- 
ments nor  their  threats  could  subdue.  Wilson  brought 
there  his  face  of  serene  good  nature,  his  vigorous, 
stocky  frame,  which  had  never  seen  ill-health,  and  in 
which  the  nerves  were  yet  an  undiscovered  region. 
It  was  entirely  useless  to  bully,  or  to  threaten,  or  to 
cajole  that  honest,  good-humored,  immovable  man, 
who  stood  like  a  rock  in  their  way,  and  took  all  their 
fury  as  unconsciously  as  a  rock  takes  the  foam  of 
breaking  waves.  In  every  anti-slavery  movement  he 
was  always  foremost,  perfectly  awake,  perfectly  well 


274  HENRY   WILSON. 

informed,  and  with  that  hardy,  practical  business 
knowledge  of  men  and  things  which  came  from  his 
early  education,  prepared  to  work  out  into  actual 
forms  what  Sumner  gave  out  as  splendid  theories, 

Wilson's  impression  on  the  Senate  was  not  mainly 
-that  of  an  orator.  His  speeches  were  as  free  from  the 
artifices  of  rhetoric  as  those  of  Lincoln,  but  they  were 
distinguished  for  the  weight  and  abundance  of  the 
practical  information  and  good  sense  which  they  con- 
tained. He  never  spoke  on  a  subject  till  he  had  made 
himself  minutely  acquainted  with  it  in  all  its  parts, 
and  was  accurately  familiar  with  all  that  belonged  to 
it.  Not  even  John  Quincy  Adams  or  Charles  Sumner 
could  show  a  more  perfect  knowledge  of  what  they 
were  talking  about  than  Henry  Wilson.  Whatever 
extraneous  stores  of  knowledge  and  belles  lettres  may 
have  been  possessed  by  any  of  his  associates,  no  man 
on  the  floor  of  the  Senate  could  know  more  of  the 
United  States  of  America  than  he ;  and  what  was 
wanting  in  the  graces  of  the  orator,  or  the  refinements 
of  the  rhetorician  was  more  than  made  amends  for  in 
the  steady,  irresistible,  strong  tread  of  the  honest  man, 
determined  to  accomplish  a  worthy  purpose. 

Wilson  succeeded  Benton  as  chairman  of  the  Mili- 
tary Committee  of  the  Senate,  and  it  was  fortunate  for 
the  country  that  when  the  sudden  storm  of  the  war 
broke  upon  us,  so  strong  a  hand  held  this  helm.  Gen. 
Scott  said  that  he  did  more  work  in  the  first  three 
months  of  the  war  than  had  been  done  in  his  position 
before  for  twenty  years ;  and  Secretary  Cameron  at- 
tributed the  salvation  of  Washington  in  those  early 
days,  mainly  to  Henry  Wilson's  power  of  doing  the 


Wilson's  "history  of  axti-slayery  measures."  275 

apparently  impossible  in  getting  the  Northern  armies 
into  the  field  in  time  to  meet  the  danger. 

His  recently  published  account  of  what  Congress 
has  done  to  destroy  slavery,  is  a  history  which  no  man 
living  was  better  fitted  to  write.  No  man  could  be 
more  minutely  acquainted  with  the  facts,  more  capable 
of  tracing  effects  to  causes,  and  thus  competent  to 
erect  this  imperishable  monument  to  the  honor  of  his 
country. 

It  is  meet  that  the  poor,  farm-bound  apprentice,  the 
shoemaker  of  Natick,  should  thus  chronicle  the  great 
history  of  the  deliverance  of  labor  from  disgrace  in 
this  democratic  nation. 

There  is  something  sublime  in  the  history  of  the  move- 
ments of  the  37th  and  38th  Congresses  of  the  United 
States.  Perhaps  never  in  any  country  did  an  equal 
number  of  wise  and  just  men  meet  together  under  a 
more  religious  sense  of  their  responsibility  to  God  and 
to  mankind.  Never  had  there  been  a  deeper  and 
more  religious  awe  presiding  over  popular  elections 
than  those  which  sent  those  men  to  Congress  to  man 
our  national  ship  in  the  terrors  of  the  most  critical 
passage  our  stormy  world  has  ever  seen.  They  were 
the  old  picked,  tried  seamen,  stout  of  heart,  giants  in 
conscience  and  moral  sense.  They  were  the  scarred . 
veterans  of  long  years  of  battling  for  the  great  prin- 
ciples of  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  men  who 
in  old  times  had  come  through  great  battles  with  the 
beasts  of  the  slavery  Ephesus,  and  still  wore  the  scars 
of  their  teeth.  They  had  seen  their  president  stricken 
down  at  their  head,  and  though  bleeding  inwardly, 


278  HENKT   WILSON. 

campments  of  tlie  loyal  forces,  demanding  'the  surren- 
der of  the  escaped  fugitives ;  and  they  were  often  de- 
livered up  by  officers  of  the  armies.  To  weaken  the 
power  of  the  insurgents,  to  strengthen  the  loyal  forces, 
and  assert  the  claims  of  humanity,  the  37th  Congress 
enacted  an  article  of  war,  dismissing  from  the  service 
officers  guilty  of  surrendering  these  fugitives. 

Three  thousand  persons  were  held  as  slaves  in  the 
District  of  Columbia,  over  which  the  nation  exercised 
exclusive  jurisdiction ;  the  37th  Congress  made  these 
three  thousand  bondmen  freemen,  and  made  slavehold- 
ingin  the  capital  ofthe  nation  for  evermore  impossible. 

"Laws  and  ordinances  existed  in  the  national  capital 
that  pressed  with  merciless  rigor  upon  the  colored  peo- 
ple :  the  37th  Congress  enacted  that  colored  persons 
should  be  tried  for  the  same  offences,  in  the  same  man- 
ner, and  be  subject  to  the  same  punishments,  as  white 
persons;  thus  abrogating  the   'black  code.' 

"Colored  persons  in  the  capital  of  this  Christian  na- 
tion were  denied  the  right  to  testify  in  the  judicial  tri- 
bunals ;  thus  placing  their  property,  their  liberties,  and 
their  lives,  in  the  power  of  unjust  and  wicked  men  ; 
the  37th  Congress  enacted  that  persons  should  not  be 
excluded  as  witnesses  in  the  courts  of  the  District  on 
account  of  color. 

"  In  the  capital  of  the  nation,  colored  persons  were 
taxed  to  support  schools  from  which  their  own  chil- 
dren were  excluded ;  and  no  public  schools  were  pro- 
vided for  the  instruction  of  more  than  four  thousand 
youth ;  the  38th  Congress  provided  by  law  that  pub- 
lic schools  should  be  established  for  colored  children, 
and  that  the  same   rate  of  appropriations  for  colored 


SUMMARY    OF    ANTI-SLAVERY    LEGISLATION.  279 

schools   should  be  made  as  are  made  for  schools   for 
the  education  of  white  children. 

"  The  railways  chartered  by  Congress,  excluded  from 
their  cars  colored  persons,  without  the  authority  of 
law  ;  Congress  enacted  that  there  should  be  no  exclu- 
sion from  any  car  on  account  of  color. 

"  Into  the  territories  of  the  United  States, —  one. 
third  of  the  surface  of  the  country, — the  slaveholding 
class  claimed  the  right  to  take  and  hold  their  slaves 
under  the  protection  of  law  ;  the  37th  Congress  pro- 
hibited slavery  for  ever  in  all  the  existing  territory, 
and  in  all  territory  which  may  hereafter  be  acquired ; 
thus  stamping  freedom  for  all,  for  ever,  upon  the  pub- 
lic domain. 

"  As  the  war  progressed,  it  became  more  clearly  ap- 
parent that  the  rebels  hoped  to  win  the  Border  slave 
States  ;  that  rebel  sympathizers  in  those  States  hoped 
to  join  the  rebel  States ;  and  that  emancipation  in 
loyal  States  would  bring  repose  to  them,  and  weaken 
the  power  of  the  Rebellion;  the  37th  Congress,  on  the 
recommendation  of  the  President,  by  the  passage  of  a 
joint  resolution,  pledged  the  faith  of  the  nation  to  aid 
loyal  States  to  emancipate  the  slaves  therein. 

"The  hoe  and  spade  of  the  rebel  slave  were  hard-. 
ly  less  potent  for  the  Rebellion  than  the  rifle  and 
bayonet  of  the  rebel  soldier.  Slaves  sowed  and  reaped 
for  the  rebels,  enabling  the  rebel  leaders  to  fill  the 
wasting  ranks  of  their  armies,  and  feed  them.  To 
weaken  the  military  forces  and  the  power  of  the  Re- 
bellion, the  37th  Congress  decreed  that  all  slaves  of 
persons  giving  aid  and  comfort  to  the  Rebellion,  es- 
caping from  such  persons,    and  taking  refuge  within 


280  HENRY   WILSON. 

the  lines  of  the  army ;  all  slaves  captured  from  such 
persons,  or  deserted  by  them ;  all  slaves  of  such  per- 
sons, being  within  any  place  occupied  by  rebel  forces, 
and  afterwards  occupied  by  the  forces  of  the  United 
States, — shall  be  captives  of  war,  and  shall  be  for  ever 
free  of  their  servitude,  and  not  again  held  as  slaves. 

"  The  provisions  of  the  Fugitive-slave  Act  permitted 
disloyal  masters  to  claim,  and  they  did  claim,  the  re- 
turn of  their  fugitive  bondmen ;  the  37th  Congress 
enacted  that  no  fugitive  should  be  surrendered  until 
the  claimant  made  oath  that  he  had  not  given  aid  and 
comfort  to  the  Rebellion. 

"  The  progress  of  the  Rebellion  demonstrated  its 
power,  and  the  needs  of  the  imperilled  nation.  To 
strengthen  the  physical  forces  of  the  United  States, 
the  37th  Congress  authorized  the  President  to  receive 
into  the  military  service  persons  of  African  descent ; 
and  every  such  person  mustered  into  the  service,  his 
mother,  his  wife  and  children,  owing  service  or  labor 
to  any  person  who  should  give  aid  and  comfort  to  the 
Rebellion,  was  made  for  ever  free. 

"  The  African  slave-trade  had  been  carried  on  by  slave 
pirates  under  the  protection  of  the  flag  of  the  United 
States.  To  extirpate  from  the  seas  that  inhuman 
traffic,  and  to  vindicate  the  sullied  honor  of  the  na- 
tion, the  Administration  early  entered  into  treaty  stip- 
ulations with  the  British  Government  for  the  mutual 
right  of  search  within  certain  limits ;  and  the  37th 
Congress  hastened  to  enact  the  appropriate  legislation 
to  carry  the  treaty  into  effect. 

"  The  slaveholding  class,  in  the  pride  of  power,  per- 
sistently refused  to  recognize   the   independence   of 


SUMMARY    OF    ANTI-SLAVERY   LEGISLATION.  28] 

Hayti  and  Liberia  ;  thus  dealing  unjustly  towards  those 
nations,  to  the  detriment  of  the  commercial  interests 
of  the  country;  the  37th  Congress  recognized  the  in- 
dependence of  those  republics  by  authorizing  the  Pres- 
ident to  establish  diplomatic  relations  with  them. 

"By  the  provisions  of  law,  white  male  citizens  alone 
were  enrolled  in  the  militia.  In  the  amendment  to 
the  acts  for  calling  out  the  militia,  the  37th  Congress 
provided  for  the  enrollment  and  drafting  of  citizens, 
without  regard  to  color ;  and,  by  the  Enrollment  Act, 
colored  persons,  free  or  slave,  are  enrolled  and  drafted 
the  same  as  white  men.  The  38th  Congress  enacted 
that  colored  soldiers  shall  have  the  same  pay,  cloth- 
ing, and  rations,  and  be  placed  in  all  respects  upon 
the  same  footing,  as  white  soldiers.  To  encourage  en- 
listments, and  to  aid  emancipation,  the  38th  Congress 
decreed  that  every  slave  mustered  into  the  military 
service  shall  be  free  for  ever ;  thus  enabling  every 
slave  fit  for  military  service  to  secure  personal  free- 
dom. 

"By  the  provisions  of  the  fugitive-slave  acts,  slave- 
masters  could  hunt  their  absconding  bondmen,  require 
the  people  to  aid  in  their  recapture,  and  have  them 
returned  at  the  expense  of  the  nation.  The  38th  Con- 
gress erased  all  fugitive-slave  acts  from  the  statutes  of 
the  Republic. 

"  The  law  of  1807  legalized  the  coastwise  slave-trade ; 
the  38th  Congress  repealed  that  act,  and  made  the 
trade  illegal. 

"  The  courts  of  the  United  States  receive  such  testi- 
mony as  is  permitted  in  the  States  where  the  courts 
are  holden.     Several  of  the  States  exclude  the  testi- 


284  HENRY   WILSON. 

The  Attorney-General  officially  pronounces  the  negro 
a  citizen  of  the  United  States.  The  negro,  who  had 
no  status  in  the  Supreme  Coul't,  is  admitted  by  the 
Chief  Justice  to  practice  as  an  attorney  before  that 
august  tribunal.  Christian  men  and  women  .follow 
the  loyal  armies  with  the  agencies  of  mental  and  moral 
instruction  to  fit  and  prepare  the  enfranchised  freed- 
men  for  the  duties  of  the  higher  condition  of  life  now 
opening  before  them." 

We  cannot  quit  this  subject  without  remarking  on 
the  striking  character  of  the  debates  Mr.  Wilson's 
book  records  on  these  subjects.  The  great  majority 
of  Congress  utters  aloud  and  with  one  consent,  just, 
manly,  noble,  humane,  large-hearted  sentiments  and  re- 
solves, while  a  poor  wailing  minority  is  picking  up  and 
retailing  the  old  worn  out  jokes  and  sneers  and  inci-  * 
vilities  and  obscenities  of  the  dying  dragon  of  slavery. 

As  a  specimen  of  the  utter  naivete  and  ignorance 
of  comity  and  good  manners  induced  by  slavery,  in 
contrast  with  the  courtesy  and  refinement  of  true  re- 
publicanism, we  give  this  fragment  of  a  debate  on  the 
recognition  of  Hayti  and  Liberia. 

Mr.  Davis,  of  Kentucky,  after  plaintively  stating 
that  he  is  weary,  sick,  disgusted,  despondent  with  the 
introduction  of  slaves  and  slavery  into  this  chamber, 
proceeds  to  state  his  terror  lest  should  these  measures 
take  effect,  these  black  representatives  would  have  to 
be  received  on  terms  of  equality  with  those  of  other 
nations.  Mr.  Davis  goes  on  to  say :  "A  big  negro  fel- 
low, dressed  out  in  his  silver  and  gold  lace,  presented 
himself  in  the  court  of  Louis  Napoleon,  I  admit,  and 
was  received.     Now,  sir,  /  want  no  such  exhibition  as 


RECOGNITION    OF    HAYTI   AND    LIBERIA.  285 

that  in  our  country.  The  American  minister,  Mr.  Ma- 
son, was  present  on  that  occasion ;  and  he  was  sleeved 
by  some  Englishman — I  have  forgotten  his  name — 
who  was  present,  who  pointed  out  to  him  the  ambas- 
sador of  Soulouque,  and  said,  '  What  do  you  think  of 
him?'  ^Ii'.  Mason  turned  round  and  said,  'I  think, 
clothes  and  all,  he  is  worth  a  thousand  dollars.'  " 

Mr.  Davis  evidently  considered  this  witticism  of  Mr. 
Mason's  as  both  a  specimen  of  high  bred  taste  and  a 
settling  argument. 

In  reply,  Mr.  Sumner  drily  says :  "  The  Senator 
alludes  to  some  possible  difficulties,  I  hardly  know 
how  to  characterize  them,  which  may  occur  here  in 
social  life,  should  the  Congress  of  these  United  States 
undertake  at  this  late  day,  simply  in  harmony  with  the 
law  of  nations,  and  following  the  policy  of  civilized 
communities,  to  pass  the  bill  under  discussion.  I  shall 
not  follow  the  senator  on  those  sensitive  topics.  I 
content  myself  with  a  single  remark.  I  have  more 
than  once  had  the  opportunity  of  meeting  citizens  of 
these  republics ;  and  I  say  nothing  more  than  truth 
when  I  add,  that  I  have  found  them  so  refined,  and  so 
full  of  self-respect,  that  I  am  led  to  believe  no  one  of 
them  charged  with  a  mission  from  his  government, will 
seek  any  society  where  he  will  not  be  enth'ely  wel- 
come. Sir,  the  senator  from  Kentucky  may  banish 
all  anxiety  on  that  account.  No  representative  from 
Hayti  or  Liberia  will  trouble  him." 

Mr.  Crittenden  of  Kentucky  said:  "I  will  only  say, 
sir,  that  I  have  an  innate  sort  of  confidence  and  pride 
that  the  race  to  which  we  belong  is  a  superior  race 
among  the  races  of  the  earth,  and  I  want  to  see  that 


286  HENRY   WILSON. 

pride  maintained.     The  Romans  thouglit  that  no  peo- 
ple on  the  face  of  the  earth  were  equal  to  the  citizens 
of  Rome,  and  it  made  them  the  greatest  people  in  the 
world.     *     *     *     The  spectacle  of  such  a  diplomatic 
dignitary  in  our  country,  would,  I  apprehend,  be  of- 
fensive to  the  people  for  many  reasons,   and  wound 
their  habitual  sense  of  superiority  to  the  African  race." 
Mr,  Thomas  of  Maine,  on  the  other  hand,  presents 
the  true  basis  of  Christian  chivalry:     "I  have  no  de- 
sire to  enter  into  the  question  of  the  relative  capacity 
of  races;  but  if  the   inferiority  of  the  African  race 
were  established,  the  inference  as  to  our  duty  would 
be  very  plain.     If  this  colony  has  been  built  up  by  an 
inferior  race  of  men,  they  have  upon  us  a  yet  stronger 
claim  for  our  countenance,  recognition,  and,  if  need 
be,  protection.     The  instincts  of  the  human  mind  and 
heart  concur  with  the  policy  of  men  and  governments 
to  help  and  protect  the  weak.     I  understand  that  to  a 
child  or  to  a  woman  I  am  to  show  a  degree  of  for- 
bearance, kindness,  and  of  gentleness  even,  which  I 
am  not  necessarily  to  extend  to  my  equal." 

In  like  manner  contrast  a  passage  of  sentiment  be- 
tween two  senators  on  the  education  bill. 

Mr.  Carlile  of  Virginia,  "did  not  see  any  good  rea- 
son why  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  should  itself 
enter  upon  a  scheme  for  educating  negroes."  He  un- 
derstood "the  reason  assigned  for  the  government  of  a 
State  undertaking  the  education  of  the  citizens  of  the 
State  is  that  the  citizens  in  this  country  are  the  govern- 
ors;" but  he  presumed  "we  have  not  yet  reached  the 
point  when  it  is  proposed  to  elevate  to  the  condition 
of  voters  the  negroes  of  the  land." 


SLAVERY  AND  FREEDOM  DOCTRINE  ON  EDUCATION.    287 

Mr.  Grimes  in  reply  said,  "It  may  be  true,  that,  in 
that  section  of  the  country  where  the  senator  is  most 
acquainted,  the  whole  idea  of  education  proceeds  from 
the  fact,  that  the  person  who  is  to  be  educated  is  merely 
to  be  educated  because  he  is  to  exercise  the  elective 
franchise ;  but  I  thank  God  that  I  was  raised  in  a  sec- 
tion of  the  country  where  there  are  nobler  and  loftier 
sentiments  entertained  in  regard  to  education.  We 
entertain  the  opinion  that  all  human  beings  are  ac- 
countable beings.  We  believe  that  every  man  should 
be  taught  so  that  he  may  be  able  to  read  the  law  by 
which  he  is  to  be  governed,  and  under  which  he  may 
be  punished.  We  believe  that  every  accountable  be- 
ing should  be  able  to  read  the  word  of  God,  by  which 
he  should  guide  his  steps  in  this  life,  and  shall  be 
judged  in  the  life  to  come.  We  believe  that  educa- 
tion is  necessary  in  order  to  elevate  the  human  race. 
We  believe  that  it  is  necessary  in  order  to  keep  our 
jails  and  our  penitentiaries  and  our  alms-houses  free 
from  inmates.  In  my  section  of  the  country,  we  do 
not  educate  any  race  upon  any  such  low  and  grovelling 
ideas  as  those  that  seem  to  be  entertained  by  the  sen- 
ator from  Virginia." 

But  the  warmest  battle  was  on  the  question  of  the 
right  of  colored  persons  to  ride  in  the  cars.  The 
chivalry  maintained  their  side  by  such  kind  of  lan- 
guage as  this:  "Has  any  gentleman  who  was  born  a 
gentleman,  or  any  man  who  has  the  instincts  of  a  gen- 
tleman, felt  himself  degraded  by  the  fact  that  he  was 
not  honored  by  a  seat  beside  some  free  negro  ?  Has 
any  lady  in  the  United  States  felt  herself  aggrieved 


288  HENRY   WILSON. 

that  she  was  not  honored  with  the  company  of  Miss 
Dinah  or  Miss  Chloe,  on  board  these  cars  ?" 

Again,  in  the  course  of  the  debate,  another  senator 
says  of  Mr.  Sumner,  "-fTe  may  ride  with  negroes,  if 
he  thinks  proper,  so  may  I ;  but  if  I  see  proper  not  to 
do  so,  I  shall  follow  my  natural  instincts,  as  he  follows 
his." 

"I  shall  vote  for  this  amendment,"  says  Henry  Wil- 
son; "and  my  own  observation  convinces  me  that 
justice,  not  to  say  decency,  requires  that  I  should  do 
so.  Some  weeks  ago,  I  rode  to  the  capitol  in  one  of 
these  cars.  On  the  front  part  of  the  car,  standing 
with  the  driver,  were,  I  think,  five  colored  clergymen 
of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  church,  dressed  like  gen- 
tlemen, and  behaving  like  gentlemen.  These  clergy- 
men were  riding  with  the  driver  on  the  front  platform, 
and  inside  the  car  were  two  drunken  loafers,  conduct- 
ing and  behaving  themselves  so  badly  that  the  con- 
ductor threatened  to  turn  them  out." 

"The  senator  from  Illinois  tells  us,"  said  Mr.  Wilson, 
"that  the  colored  people  have  a  legal  right  to  ride  in 
these  cars  now.  We  know  it ;  nobody  doubts  it ;  but 
this  company  into  which  we  breathed  the  breath 
of  life,  outrages  the  rights  of  twenty-five  thousand 
colored  people  in  this  District,  in  our  presence,  in  de- 
fiance of  our  opinions.  *  *  *  j  iq\\  i}^q  senator 
from  Illinois  that  I  care  far  more  for  the  rig-hts  of  the 
humblest  black  child  that  treads  the  soil  of  the  District 
of  Columbia  than  I  do  for  the  prejudices  of  this  cor- 
poration, and  its  friends  and  patrons.  The  rights  of 
the  humblest  colored  man  in  the  capital  of  this  Chris- 
tian nation  are  dearer  to  me  than  the  commendations 


PRO-SLAVERY   GOOD    TASTE.  289 

or  the  thanks  of  all  persons  in  the  city  of  Washington 
who  sanction  this  violation  of  the  rights  of  a  race.  I 
give  this  vote,  not  to  offend  this  corporation,  not  to 
offend  anybody  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  but  to 
protect  the  rights  of  the  poor  and  the  lowly,  trodden 
under  the  heel  of  power.  I  trust  we  shall  protect 
rights,  if  we  do  it  over  prejudices  and  over  interests, 
until  every  man  in  this  country  is  fully  protected  in 
all  the  rights  that  belong  to  beings  made  in  the  image 
of  God.  Let  the  free  man  of  this  race  be  permitted 
to  run  the  career  of  life ;  to  make  of  himself  all  that 
God  intended  he  should  make,  when  he  breathed  into 
him  the  breath  of  life." 

So  there  they  had  it,  at  the  mouth  of  an  educated 
northern  working-man,  who  knew  what  man  as  man  was 
worth,  and  the  retiring  senators,  giving  up  the  battle, 
wailed  forth  as  follows : 

"Poor,  helpless,  despised,  inferior  race  of  white 
men,  you  have  very  little  interest  in  this  government, 
you  are  not  worth  consideration  in  the  legislation  of 
this  country ;  but  let  your  superior  Sambo's  interest 
come  in  question,  and  you  will  find  the  most  tender 
interest  on  his  behalf  What  a  pity  there  is  not  some- 
body to  lamp-black  white  men,  so  that  their  rights 
could  be  secured." 

Mr,  Powell  thought  that  the  Senator  from  Massa- 
chusetts, the  next  time  one  of  his  Ethiopian  friends 
comes  to  complain  to  him  on  the  subject,  should  bring 
an  action  for  him  in  court,  and  adds,  with  the  usual 
good  taste  of  his  party:  *  *  "The  Senator  has 
indicated  to  his  fanatical  brethren  those  people  who 
meet  in  free  love  societies,  the  old  ladies  and  the  sensa- 


290  HENRY    WILSON. 

tion  preachers,  and  those  who  live  on  fanaticism,  that 
he  has  offered  it,  and  I  see  no  reason  why  we  should 
take  up  the  time  of  the  Senate  in  squabbling  over  the 
Senator's  amendments,  introducing  the  negro  into 
every  wood-pile  that  comes  along." 

Mr.  Saulsbury  closes  a  discussion  on  negro  testimony 
with  the  following  pious  ejaculation:  "He  did  not 
wish  to  say  any  more  about  the  nigger  aspect  of 
the  case.  It  is  here  every  day ;  and  I  suppose  it  loill 
be  here  every  day  for  years  to  come,  till  the  Demo- 
cratic party  comes  in  power  and  wipes  all  legislation 
of  this  character  out  of  the  statute-book,  which  I  trust 
in  God  they  will  do." 

All  this  sort  of  talk,  shaken  in  the  face  of  the  joy- 
ous band  of  brothers  who  were  going  on  their  way 
rejoicing,  reminds  us  forcibly  of  John  Bunyan's  de- 
scription of  the  poor  old  toothless  giant,  who  in  his 
palmy  days  used  to  lunch  upon  pilgrims,  tearing  their 
flesh  and  cracking  their  bones  in  the  most  comfortable 
way  possible,  but  who  now  having  sustained  many  a 
severe  brush,  was  so  crippled  with  rheumatism  that 
he  could  only  sit  in  the  mouth  of  his  cave,  mumbling, 
"You  will  never  mend  till  more  of  you  are  burned." 

Thank  God  for  the  day  we  live  in,  and  for  such  men 
as  Henry  Wilson  and  his  compeers  of  the  37th  and 
38th  Congresses.  They  have  at  last  put  our  American 
Union  in  that  condition  which  old  Solon  gave  as  his 
ideal  of  true  Democracy,  namely : 

A  STATE  WHERE  AN  INJURY  TO  THE  MEANEST  MEMBER 
IS   FELT   AS   AN   INJURY   TO   THE   WHOLE. 


""■'n 


290  HENRY   WILSON. 


•o   mt-^ 

timony 
not 


Demo- 

iust 


le  joy- 

on  tiiieir  way 

■     de- 

laiil,    •  '  '^ 

ir 

a 
that 


tor  siicii  men 

rtli  and 

lean 


•  THE 

lY   TO  >LE. 


-^'"iyA-H  Ritchie 


CHAPTER  Vn. 

HORACE  GREELEY. 

The  Scotch-Irish  Race  in  the  United  States — Mr.  Greeley  a  Partly  Reversed  Spec- 
imen of  it — His  Birth  and  Boyhood — Learns  to  Read  Books  Upside  Down — 
His  Apprenticesliip  on  a  Newspaper — The  Town  Encyclopaedia — His  Industry 
at  his  Trade — His  First  Experience  of  a  Fugitive  Slave  Chase — His  First  Ap- 
pearance in  New  York.  The  Work  on  the  Polyglot  Testament — Mr.  Greeley 
as  "  the  Ghost  "—The  First  Cheap  Daily  Paper— The  Firm  of  Greeley  &  Story 
— The  New  Yorker,  the  Jeffersonian  and  the  Log  Cabin — Mr.  Greeley  as 
Editor  of  the  New  Yorker — Beginning  of  The  Tribune — Mr.  Greeley's  Theory 
of  a  Political  Newspaper — His  Love  for  The  Tribune — The  First  Week  of  that 
Paper — The  Attack  of  the  Sun  and  its  Result — Mr.  McElratli's  Partnership — 
Mr.  Greeley's  Fomierism — "  The  Bloody  Sixth  " — The  Cooper  Libel  Suits — 
Mr.  Greeley  in  Congress — He  goes  to  Europe — His  course  in  the  Rebellion — 
His  ^Vmbition  and  Qualifications  for  Office — The  Key-Note  of  his  Character. 

No  race  has  stronger  characteristics,  bodily  or  men- 
tal, than  that  powerful,  obstinate,  fiery,  pious,  hu- 
morous, honest,  industrious,  hard-headed,  intelligent, 
thoughtful  and  reasoning  people,  the  Scotch-Irish. 
The  vigorous  qualities  of  the  Scotch-Irish  have  left 
broad  and  deep  traces  upon  the  history  of  the  United 
States.  As  if  with  some  hereditary  instinct,  they 
settled  along  the  great  Allegheny  ridge,  principally 
from  Pennsylvania  to  Georgia,  in  the  fertile  val- 
leys and  broader  expanses  of  level  land  on  either  side, 
especially  to  the  westward.  In  the  healthy  and  gen- 
ial air  of  these  regions,  renowned  for  the  handsomest 
breed  of  men  and  women  in  the  world,  the  Scotch- 
Irish  acted  out  with  thorough  freedom,  all  the  vigor- 
ous and  often  violent  impulses  of  their  nature.  They 
were  pioneers,  Indian-fighters,  politicians,  theologians; 

293 


294  HORACE    GREELEY. 

and  they  were  as  polemic  in  everything  else  as  in  the- 
ology. Jackson  and  Calhoun  were  of  this  blood.  An 
observant  traveller  in  Tennessee  described  to  the  writer 
the  interest  with  which  he  found  in  that  state  literally 
hundreds  of  forms  and  faces  with  traits  so  like  the 
lean  erect  figure,  high  narrow  head,  stiff  black  hair, 
and  stern  features  of  the  fighting  old  President,  that 
they  might  have  been  his  brothers.  Many  of  our  em- 
inent Presbyterian  theologians  like  the  late  Dr.  Wilson, 
of  Cincinnati,  have  been  Scotch-Irish  too,  and  with  their 
spuitual  weapons  they  have  waged  many  a  controversy 
as  unyielding,  as  stern  and  as  unsparing  as  the  battle 
in  which  Jackson  beat  down  Calhoun  by  showing  him 
a  halter,  or  as  that  brutal  knife  fight  in  which  he  and 
Thomas  H.  Benton  nearly  cut  each  other's  lives  out. 

Horace  Greeley  is  of  this  Scotch-Irish  race,  and  af- 
ter a  rule  which  physiologists  well  know  to  be  not 
very  uncommon,  he  presents  a  direct  reverse  of  many 
of  its  traits,  more  especially  its  physical  ones.  Instead 
of  a  lean,  erect  person,  dry  hard  muscles,  a  high  nar- 
row head,  coarse  stiff  black  hair,  and  a  stern  look,  he 
tends  to  be  fat,  is  shambling  and  bowed  over  in  carry- 
ing himself,  thinskinned  and  smooth  and  fair  as  a  baby, 
with  a  wide,  long,  yet  rounded  head,  silky -fine  almost 
white  hair,  and  a  habitually  meek  sort  of  smile,  which 
however  must  not  be  trusted  to  as  an  index  of  the 
mind  within.  Meek  as  he  looks,  no  man  living  is 
readier  with  a  strong  sharp  answer.  Non-resistant  as 
he  is  physically,  there  is  not  a  more  uncompromising 
an  opponent  and  intense  combatant  in  these  United 
States.     Mentally,  he  shows  a  predominance  of  Scotch- 


MR.  Greeley's  birth  and  youth  295 

Irish  blood  modified  by  certain  traits  wMcb  reveal  theni- 
selves  in  his  readiness  to  receive  new  theories  of  life. 

Mr.  Greeley  was  born  Feb.  3d,  1811,  at  his  father's 
farm,  in  Amherst,  New  Hampshke.  The  town  was 
part  of  a  district  first  settled  by  a  small  company  of 
sixteen  families  of  Scotch-Ii'ish  from  Londonderry. 
These  were  part  of  a  considerable  emigration  in  1718 
from  that  city,  whose  members  at  first  endeavored 
to  settle  in  Massachusetts ;  but  they  were  so  ill  re- 
ceived by  the  Massachusetts  settlers  that  they  found 
it  necessary  to  scatter  away  into  distant  parts  of  the 
country  before  they  could  find  rest  for  the  soles  of 
their  feet. 

The  ancestors  of  Mr.  Greeley  were  farmers,  those  of 
the  name  of  Greeley  being  often  also  blacksmiths. 
The  boy  was  fully  occupied  with  hard  farm  work,  and 
he  attended  the  American  farmers'  college,  the  District 
School.  He  had  an  intense  natural  love  for  acquiring 
knowledge,  and  learned  to  read  of  himself  He  could 
read  any  child's  book  when  he  was  three,  and  any  or- 
dinary book  at  four ;  and  having,  as  his  biographer, 
Mr.  Parton,  suggests,  still  an  overj)lus  of  mental  activ- 
ity, he  learned  to  read  as  readily  with  the  book  side 
ways  or  upside  down,  as  right  side  up. 

Mr.  Greeley,  like  a  number  of  men  who  have  grown 
up  to  become  capable  of  a  vast  quantity  of  hard  work 
and  usefulness,  was  extremely  feeble  at  birth,  and  was 
even  thought  scarcely  likely  to  live  when  he  first  en- 
tered the  world.  During  his  first  year  he  was  feeble 
and  sickly.  His  mother,  who  had  lost  her  two  children 
born  next  before  him,  seemed  to  be  doubly  fond  of 
her  weak  little  one,  both  for  the  sake  of  those  that 
,      19 


296  HORACE   GREELEY. 

were  gone,  and  of  his  very  weakness,  and  she  kept 
him  by  her  side  much  more  closely  than  if  he  had  been 
strong  and  well ;  and  day  after  day,  she  sung  and  re- 
peated to  him  an  endless  store  of  songs  and  ballads, 
stories  and  traditions.  This  vivid  oral  literature  doubt- 
less had  great  influence  in  stimulating  the  child's  nat- 
ural aptitude  for  mental  activity. 

Mr.  Greeley's  father  was  not  a  much  better  financier 
than  his  son.  In  1820,  in  spite  of  all  the  honest  hard- 
work  that  he  could  do,  he  became  bankrupt,  and  in 
1821  moved  to  a  new  residence  in  Vermont. 

Mr.  Greeley  seems  to  have  had  such  an  inborn  in- 
stinct after  newspapers  and  newspaper  work,  as  Mozart 
had  for  music  and  musical  composition.  He  himself 
says  on  this  point,  in  his  own  "  Recollections  "  in  The 
New  York  Ledger,  "  Having  loved  and  devoured 
newspapers — indeed  every  form  of  periodical — from 
childhood,  I  early  resolved  to  be  a  printer  if  I  could." 
When  only  eleven  years  old  he  applied  to  be  received 
as  an  apprentice  in  a  newspaper  office  at  Whitehall, 
Vt.,  and  was  greatly  cast  down  by  being  refused  for 
his  youth.  Four  years  afterwards,  in  the  spring  of 
1826,  he  obtained  employment  in  the  office  of  the 
Northern  Spectator,  at  East  Poultney,  Vt,  and  thus 
began  his  professional  career. 

As  a  young  man,  Mr.  Greeley  was  not  only  poorly 
but  most  extremely  carelessly  dressed ;  absent  minded 
yet  observant ;  awkward  and  indeed  clownish  in  his 
manners;  extremely  fond  of  the  game  of  checkers, 
at  which  he  seldom  found  an  equal ;  and  of  fishing  and 
bee-hunting.  Fonder  still  he  was  of  reading  and  ac- 
quiring general  knowledge,  for  which  a  public  library 


BECOMES  A   SKILFUL   PRmTER.  297 

in  the  town  offered  valuable  advantages ;  and  he  very- 
soon  became,  as  a  biographer  says,  a  "  town  encyclo- 
pedia," appealed  to  as  a  court  of  last  resort,  by  every 
one  who  was  at  a  loss  for  information.  In  the  local 
debating  society  of  the  place  he  was  assiduous  and 
prominent,  and  was  noticeable  both  for  the  remarka- 
ble body  of  detailed  facts  which  he  could  bring  to 
bear  upon  the  questions  discussed,  and  for  his  thor- 
ough devotion  to  his  argument.  Whatever  his  opinion 
was,  he  stuck  to  it  against  either  reasoning  or  author- 
ity. 

In  his  calling  as  a  printer,  he  was  most  laborious, 
and  quickly  became  the  most  valuable  hand  in  the  of- 
fice. He  also  began  here  his  experience  as  a  writer — 
if  that  maybe  called  written  which  was  never  set  down 
with  a  pen.  For  he  used  to  compose  condensations  of 
news  paragraphs,  and  even  original  paragraphs  of  his 
own,  framing  his  sentences  in  his  mind  as  he  stood  at 
the  case,  and  setting  them  up  in  type  entirely  without 
the  intermediate  process  of  setting  them  down  in  man- 
uscript. This  practice  was  exactly  the  way  to  culti- 
vate economy,  clearness,  and  directness  of  style ;  as  it 
was  necessary  to  know  accurately  what  was  to  be  said, 
or  else  the  letters  in  the  composing  stick  would  have 
to  be  distributed  and  set  up  again  ;  and  it  was  natural 
to  use  the  fewest  and  plainest  possible  words. 

While  Horace  was  thus  at  work,  his  father  had  again 
removed  beyond  the  AUeghanies,  where  he  was  doing 
his  best  to  bring  some  new  land  under  cultivation. 
The  son,  meanwhile,  and  for  some  time  after  his  ap- 
prenticeship too,  used  to  send  to  his  father  all  the  mon- 
ey that  he  could  save  from  his  scanty  wages.     He  con- 


298  HORACE    GREELEY. 

tinued  to  assist  his  fatiier,  indeed,  until  the  latter  was 
made  permanently  comfortable  upon  a  valuable  and 
well  stocked  farm;  and  even  paid  up  some  of  his 
father's  old  debts  in  New  Hampshire  thirty  years  after 
they  were  contracted. 

Mr.  Greeley  has  recorded  that  while  in  Poultney  he 
witnessed  a  fugitive  slave  chase.  New  York  had  then 
yet  a  remainder  of  slavery  in  her,  in  the  persons  of  a 
few  colored  people  who  had  been  under  age  when  the 
state  abolished  slavery,  and  had  been  left  by  law  to  wait 
for  their  freedom  until  they  should  be  twenty-eight 
years  old,  Mr.  Greeley  tells  the  story  in  the  N.  Y. 
Ledger,  in  sarcastic  and  graphic  words,  as  follows : 

"  A  young  negro  who  must  have  been  uninstructed 
in  the  sacredness  of  constitutional  guaranties,  the 
rights  of  property,  &c.,  &c.,  &c.,  feloniously  abstract- 
ed himself  from  his  master  in  a  neighboring  New  York 
town,  and  conveyed  the  chattel  personal  to  our  village ; 
where  he  was  at  work  when  said  master,  with  due 
process  and  following,  came  over  to  reclaim  and  re- 
cover the  goods.  I  never  saw  so  large  a  number  of 
men  and  boys  so  suddenly  on  our  village-green,  as  his 
advent  incited ;  and  the  result  was  a  speedy  disap- 
pearance of  the  chattel,  and  the  return  of  his  master, 
disconsolate  and  niggerless,  to  the  place  whence  he 
came.  Everything  on  our  side  was  impromptu  and 
instinctive,  and  nobody  suggested  that  envy  or  hate 
of  the  South,  or  of  New  York,  or  of  the  master,  had 
impelled  the  rescue.  Our  people  hated  injustice  and 
oppression,  and  acted  as  if  they  couldn't  help  it." 

In  June  1830,  the  Northern  Spectator  was  discon- 
tinued, and  our  encyclopedic  apprentice  was  turned 


FIRST   APPEARANCE    IN   NEW   YORK.  299 

loose  on  the  world.  Hereupon  lie  traveled,  partly  on 
foot  and  partly  by  canal,  to  his  father's  place  in  West- 
ern Pennsylvania.  Here  he  remained  a  while,  and 
then  after  one  or  two  unsuccessful  attempts  to  find 
work,  succeeded  at  Erie,  Pa.,  where  he  was  employed 
for  seven  months.  During  this  time  his  board  with  his 
employer  having  been  part  of  his  pay,  he  used  for 
other  personal  expenses  six  dollars  in  cash.  The 
wages  remaining  due  him  amounted  to  just  ninety-nine 
dollars.  Of  this  he  now  gave  his  father  eighty-five, 
put  the  rest  in  his  pocket  and  went  to  New  York. 

He  reached  the  city  on  Friday  morning  at  sunrise, 
August  18th,  1831,  with  ten  dollars,  his  bundle,  and 
his  trade.  He  engaged  board  and  lodging  at  $2.50 
a  week,  and  hunted  the  printing  offices  for  employ- 
ment during  that  day  and  Saturday  in  vain ;  fell  in 
with  a  fellow  Vermonter  early  Monday  morning,  a 
journeyman  printer  like  himself,  and  was  by  him  pre- 
sented to  his  foreman.  Now  there  was  in  the  office  a 
very  difficult  piece  of  composition,  a  polyglot  testa- 
ment, on  which  various  printers  had  refused  to  work. 
The  applicant  was,  as  he  always  had  been,  and  will 
be,  very  queer  looking  ;  insomuch  that  while  waiting 
for  the  foreman's  arrival,  the  other  printers  had  been 
impelled  to  make  many  personal  remarks  about  him. 
But  though  equally  entertained  with  his  appearance, 
the  foreman,  rather  to  oblige  the  introducer  than  from 
any  admiration  of  the  new  hand,  permitted  him  a  trial, 
and  he  was  set  at  work  on  the  terrible  Polyglot.  We 
transcribe  Mr.  Parton's  lively  account  of  the  sequel : 

"After  Horace  had  been  at  work  an  hour  or  two, 
Mr.  West,  the  'boss,'  came  into  the  office.     What  his 


300  HORACE   GREELEY. 

feelings  were  when  lie  saw  the  new  man  may  be  in- 
ferred from  a  little  conversation  on  the  subject  which 
took  place  between  him  and  the  foreman : 

"  'Did  you  hire  that  d fool?'  asked  West,  with 

no  small  irritation. 

'"Yes;  we  must  have  hands,  and  he's  the  best  I 
could  get,'  said  the  foreman,  justifying  his  conduct, 
though  he  was  really  ashamed  of  it. 

" '  Well,'  said  the  master,  'for  Heaven's  sake  pay  him 
off  to-night,  and  let  him  go  about  his  business.' 

"Horace  worked  through  the  day  with  his  usual  in- 
tensity, and  in  perfect  silence.  At  night  he  presented 
to  the  foreman,  as  the  custom  then^was,  the  'proof  of 
his  day's  work.  What  astonishment  was  depicted  in 
the  good-looking  countenance  of  that  gentleman, 
when  he  discovered  that  the  proof  before  him  was 
greater  in  quantity  and  more  correct  than  that  of  any 
other  day's  work  on  the  Polyglot!  There  was  no 
thought  of  sending  the  new  journeyman  about  his 
business  now.  He  was  an  established  man  at  once. 
Thenceforward,  for  several  months,  Horace  worked 
regularly  and  hard  on  the  Testament,  earning  about 
six  dollars  a  week." 

While  a  journeyman  here,  he  worked  very  hard  in- 
deed, as  he  was  paid  by  the  piece,  and  the  work  was 
necessarily  slow.  At  the  same  time,  according  to  his 
habit,  he  was  accustomed  to  talk  very  fluently,  his  first 
day's  silent  labor  having  been  an  exception ;  and  his 
voluble  and  earnest  utterance,  singular,  high  voice, 
fullness,  accuracy,  and -readiness  with  facts,  and  pos- 
itive though  good-natured  tenacious  disputatiousness, 
together  with  his  very  marked  personal  traits,  made  him 


MR.    GREELEY  AS    "THE    GHOST.  301 

the  phenomenon  of  the  office.  His  complexion  was  so 
fair,  and  his  hair  so  flaxen  white,  that  the  men  nicknamed 
him  "the  Ghost."  The  mischievous  juniors  played 
him  many  tricks,  some  of  them  rough  enough,  but  he 
only  begged  to  be  let  alone,  so  that  he  might  work, 
and  they  soon  got  tired  of  teasing  from  which  there 
was  no  reaction.  Besides,  he  was  forever  lending 
them  money,  for  like  very  many  of  the  profession,  the 
other  men  in  the  office  were  profuse  with  whatever 
funds  were  in  hand,  and  often  needy  before  pay-day ; 
while  his  own  unconscious  parsimony  in  personal  ex- 
penditures was  to  him  a  sort  of  Fortunatus'  purse — an 
unfailing  fountain. 

For  about  a  year  and  a  half  Mr.  Greeley  worked  as 
a  journeyman  printer.  During  1832  he  had  become 
acquainted  with  a  Mr.  Story,  an  enterprising  young 
printer,  and  also  with  Horatio  D.  Sheppard,  the  origi- 
nator of  the  idea  of  a  Cheap  Daily  Paper.  The  three 
consulted  and  co-operated ;  in  December  the  printing 
firm  of  Greeley  &  Story  was  formed,  and  on  the  first 
of  January,  1833,  the  first  number  of  the  first  cheap 
New  York  Daily,  "The  Morning  Post,"  was  issued, 
"price  two  cents,"  Dr.  Sheppard  being  editor.  Vari- 
ous disadvantages  stopped  the  paper  before  the  end 
of  the  third  week,  but  the  idea  was  a  correct  one.  The 
New  York  Sun,  issued  in  accordance  with  it  nine 
months  later,  is  still  a  prosperous  newspaper;  and  the 
great  morning  dailies  of  New  York,  including  the 
Tribune,  are  radically  upon  the  same  model. 

Though  this  paper  stopped,  the  job  printing  firm 
of  Greeley  &  Story  went  on  and  made  money.     At 


302  HORACE    GREELEY. 

Mr.  Story's  death,  July  9,  1833,  liis  brother-in-law, 
Mr.  Winchester,  took  his  place  in  the  office.  In  1834 
the  firm  resolved  to  establish  a  weekly ;  and  on  March 
22d,  1834,  appeared  the  first  number  of  the  Weekly 
New  Yorker,  owned  by  the  firm,  and  with  Mr.  Greeley 
as  editor.  He  had  now  found  his  proper  work,  and 
he  has  pursued  it  ever  since  with  remarkable  force, 
industry  and  success. 

This  success,  however,  was  only  editorial,  not  finan- 
cial, so  far  as  the  New  Yorker  was  concerned.  The 
paper  began  with  twelve  subscribers,  and  without  any 
flourishes  or  promises.  By  its  own  literary,  political 
and  statistical  value,  its  circulation  rose  in  a  year  to 
4,500,  and  afterwards  to  9,000.  But  when  it  stopped, 
Sept.  20,  1841,  it  left  its  editor  laboring  under  troub- 
lesome debts,  both  receivable  and  payable.  The  diflS- 
culty  was  manifold ;  its  chief  sources  were,  Mr,  Gree- 
ley's own  deficiencies  as  a  financier,  supplying  too 
many  subscribers  on  credit,  and  the  great  business 
crash  of  1837. 

During  the  existence  of  the  New  Yorker,  Mr,  Greeley 
also  edited  two  short-lived  but  infiuential  campaign  po- 
litical sheets.  One  of  these,  the  Jeffersonian,  was  pub- 
lishedweekly,  at  Albany,  This  was  a  Whig  paper,  which 
appeared  during  a  year  from  March,  1838,  and  kept 
its  editor  over-busy,  with  the  necessary  weekly  jour- 
ney to  Albany,  and  the  double  work.  The  other  was 
the  Log  Cabin,  the  well-known  Harrison  campaign 
paper,  issued  weekly  during  the  exciting  days  of 
"Tippecanoe  and  Tyler  too,"  in  1840,  and  which  was 
continued  as  a  family  paper  for  a  year  afterwards. 
Of  the  very  first  number  of  this  famous  little  sheet, 


EDITOR  OF  THE  NEW  YORKER.         303 

48,000  were  sold,  and  tlie  edition  rapidly  increased  to 
nearly  90,000.  Neither  of  these  two  papers,  however, 
made  much  money  for  their  editor.  But  during  his  la- 
bors on  the  three,  the  New  Yorker,  Jeffersonian,  and 
Log  Cabin,  he  had  gained  a  standing  as  a  political 
and  statistical  editor  of  force,  information  and  ability. 

Mr.  Greeley's  editorial  work  on  the  New  Yorker 
was  a  sort  of  literary  spring-time  to  him.  The  paper 
itself  was  much  more  largely  literary  than  the  Tribune 
now  is.  In  his  editorial  writing  in  those  days,  more- 
over, there  is  a  certain  rhetorical  plentifulness  of  ex- 
pression which  the  seriousness  and  the  pressures  of  an 
overcrowded  life  have  long  ago  cut  sharply  and  close- 
ly off;  and  he  even  frequently  indulged  in  poetical 
compositions.  This  ornamental  material,  however, 
was  certainly  not  his  happiest  kind  of  effort.  Mr. 
Greeley  does  his  best  only  by  being  wholly  utilitarian. 
Poetry  and  rhetoric  appear  as  well  from  his  mind  as 
a  great  long  red  feather  would,  sticking  out  of  his 
very  oldest  white  hat. 

The  great  work  of  ^Ii'.  Greeley's  life,  however — 
Th-e  New  York  Tribune — had  not  begun  yet,  though 
he  was  thirty  years  old.  Its  commencement  was  an 
nounced  in  one  of  the  last  numbers  of  the  Log  Cabin, 
for  April  10,  1841,  and  its  first  number  appeared  on 
the  very  day  of  the  funeral  solemnities  with  which 
New  York  honored  the  memory  of  President  Harrison. 
Mr.  Greeley's  own  account,  in  one  of  his  articles  in 
the  New  York  Ledger,  is  an  interesting  statement  of 
his  Theory  of  a  Political  Newspaper.  He  says : 

"My  leading  idea  was  the  establishment  of  a  jour- 
nal removed  alike  from  servile  partizanship  on  the  one 


304  HORACE    GREELEY. 

hand,  and  from  gagged,  mincing  neutrality  on  tTie 
other.  Party  spirit  is  so  fierce  and  intolerant  in  this 
country,  that  the  editor  of  a  non-partizan  sheet  is  re- 
strained from  saying  what  he  thinks  and  feels  on  the 
most  vital,  imminent  topics ;  while,  on  the  other  hand, 
a  Democratic,  Whig,  or  Republican  journal  is  gen- 
erally expected  to  praise  or  blame,  like  or  dislike, 
eulogize  or  condemn,  in  precise  accordance  with  the 
views  and  interest  of  its  party.  I  believed  there  was 
a  happy  medium  between  these  extremes — a  position 
from  which  a  journalist  might  openly  and  heartily  ad- 
vocate the  principles  and  commend  the  measures  of 
that  party  to  which  his  convictions  allied  him,  yet  dis- 
sent frankly  from  its  course  on  a  particular  question, 
and  even  denounce  its  candidates  if  they  were  shown 
to  be  deficient  in  capacity,  or  (far  worse)  in  integrity. 
I  felt  that  a  journal  thus  loyal  to  its  own  convic- 
tions, yet  ready  to  expose  and  condemn  unworthy 
conduct  or  incidental  error  on  the  part  of  men  attach- 
ed to  its  party,  must  be  far  more  effective,  even  party- 
wise,  than  though  it  might  always  be  counted  on  to 
applaud  or  reprobate,  bless  or  curse,  as  the  party  pre- 
judices or  immediate  interest  might  seem  to  pre- 
scribe." 

Mr.  Greeley  has  now  been  the  chief  editor  of  the 
Tribune  for  twenty-six  years,  and  the  persistent  love 
with  which  he  still  regards  his  gigantic  child  strikingly 
appears  in  the  final  paragraph  of  the  same  article : 

"Fame  is  a  vapor;  popularity  an  accident;  riches 
take  wings ;  the  only  earthly  certainty  is  oblivion — no 
man  can  foresee  what  a  day  may  bring  forth ;  and  those 
who  cheer  to-day  will  often  curse  to-morrow ;  and  yet 


fflS  LOVE   FOR   THE    TRIBUNE.  305 

I  cherish  the  hope  that  the  Journal  I  projected  and 
established  will  live  and  flourish  long  after  I  shall  have 
moldered  into  forgotten  dust,  being  guided  by  a  larg- 
er wisdom,  a  more  unerring  sagacity  to  discover  the 
right,  though  not  by  a  more  unfaltering  readiness  to 
embrace  and  defend  it  at  whatever  personal  cost ;  and 
that  the  stone  which  covers  my  ashes  may  bear  to  fu- 
ture eyes  the  still  intelligible  inscription,  '  Founder  of 
The  New  York  Tribune.  " 

The  Tribune  began  with  some  600  subscribers.  Of 
its  first  number  5,000  copies  were  printed,  and,  as  Mr. 
Greeley  himself  once  said,  he  "found  some  difficulty 
in  giving  them  away."  At  the  end  of  the  first  week 
the  cash  account  stood,  receipts,  $92 ;  expenditures, 
$525.  Now  the  proprietor's  whole  money  capital  was 
$1,000,  borrowed  money.  But — as  has  more  than 
once  been  the  case  with  others — an  unjust  attack  on 
the  Tribune  strengthened  it.  An  unprincipled  at- 
tempt was  made  by  the  publisher  of  the  Sun,  to  bribe 
and  bully  the  newsmen  and  then  to  flog  the  newsboys 
out  of  selling  the  Tribune.  The  Tribune  was  prompt 
in  telling  the  story  to  the  public,  and  the  public  show- 
ed that  sense  of  justice  so  natural  to  all  communities, 
by  subscribing  to  it  at  the  rate  of  three  hundred  a 
day  for  three  weeks  at  a  time.  In  four  weeks  it  sold 
an  edition  of  six  thousand,  and  in  seven  it  sold  eleven 
thousand,  which  was  then  all  that  it  could  print.  Its 
advertising  patronage  grew  equally  fast.  And  what 
was  infinitely  more  than  this  rush  of  subscribers,  a 
steady  and  judicious  business  man  became  a  partner 
with  Mr.  Greeley  in  the  paper,  at  the  end  of  July, 
not  four  months  from  its  first  issue.      This  was  Mr. 


306  HORACE    GREELEY. 

Thomas  McElrath,  whose  sound  business  management 
undoubtedly  supplied  to  the  concern  an  element  more 
indispensable  to  its  continued  prosperity,  than  any 
editorial  ability  whatever. 

The  Tribune,  as  we  have  seen,  like  the  infant  Her- 
cules in  the  old  fable,  successfully  resisted  an  attempt 
to  strangle  it  in  its  cradle.  From  that  time  to  this,  the 
paper  and  its  editor  have  lived  in.  a  healthy  and  invig- 
orating atmosphere  of  violent  attacks  of  all  sorts,  on 
grounds  political,  social,  moral  and  religious.  The 
paper  has  not  been  found  fault  with,  however,  for  be- 
ing flat  or  feeble  or  empty.  The  first  noticeable  dis- 
turbance after  the  Sun  attack  was  the  Fourierite  con- 
troversy. Perhaps  Mr.  Greeley's  Fourierism — or  So- 
cialism, as  it  might  be  better  called — was  the  princi- 
pal if  not  the  sole  basis  of  all  the  notorious  uproars 
that  have  been  made  for  a  quarter  of  a  century  about 
his  "isms,"  and  his  being  a  "philosopher."  During 
1841  and  several  following  years,  the  Tribune  was  the 
principal  organ  in  the  United  States  of  the  efforts  then 
made  to  exemplify  and  prove  in  actual  life  the  doc- 
trines of  Charles  Fourier.  The  paper  was  violently 
assaulted  with  the  charge  that  these  doctrines  neces- 
sarily implied  immorality  and  irreligion.  The  Tribune 
never  was  particularly  "  orthodox,"  and  while  it  vigor- 
ously defended  itself,  it  could  not  honestly  in  doing  so 
say  what  would  satisfy  the  stricter  doctrinalists  of  the 
different  orthodox  religious  denominations.  More- 
over, the  practical  experiments  made  to  organize  Four- 
ierite "phalanxes  "  and  the  like,  all  failed ;  so  that  in 
one  sense,  both  the  Fourierite  movement  was  a  failure, 
and  The  Tribune  was  vanquished  in  the  discussion. 


THE  "bloody  sixth" — THE  COOPER  LIBEL  SUITS.    307 

But  the  controversy  was  a  great  benefit  to  the  cause 
of  associated  human  efi"ort ;  and  there  can  be  no  doubt 
that  the  various  endeavors  at  the  present  day  in  prog- 
ress to  apply  the  principle  of  association  to  the  easing 
and  improving  of  the  various  concerns  of  life,  present 
a  much  more  hopeful  prospect  than  would  have  been 
the  case  without  the  ardent  and  energetic  advocacy 
of  The  Tribune. 

The  next  quarrel  was  with  "  the  Bloody  Sixth," 
as  it  was  called,  i.  e.  the  low  and  rowdy  politicians  of 
the  Sixth  Ward,  then  the  most  corrupt  part  of  the 
city.  These  politicians  and  their  followers,  enraged  at 
certain  exposures  of  their  misdeeds  in  the  spring  of 
1842,  demanded  a  retraction,  and  only  getting  a  hot- 
ter denunciation  than  before,  promised  to  come  down 
and  "smash  the  office."  The  whole  establishment  was 
promptly  armed  with  muskets;  arrangements  were 
made  for  flinging  bricks  from  the  roof  above  and  spurt- 
ing steam  from  the  engine  boiler  below ;  but  the 
"  Bloody  Sixth  "  never  came. 

The  Cooper  libel  suits  were  in  consequence  of  al- 
leged libelous  matter  about  X  FenimOre  Cooper,  who 
was  a  bitter  tempered  and  quarrelsome  man,  and  to  the 
full  as  pertinacious  as  Mr.  Greeley  himself  This  mat- 
ter was  printed  November  17,  1841.  The  first  suit  in 
consequence  was  tried  December  9,  1842.  The  dam- 
ages were  laid  at  $3,000.  Cooper  and  Greeley  each 
argued  on  his  own  side  to  the  Court,  and  Cooper  got 
a  verdict  for  $200.  IVIr.  Greeley  went  home  and  wrote 
a  long  and  shai'p  narrative  of  the  whole,  for  which 
Cooper  instantly  brought  another  suit ;  but  he  found 


308  HORACE   GREELEY. 

that  his  prospect  this  time  did  not  justify  his  perse- 
verance, and  the  suit  never  came  to  trial. 

In  1844  Mr.  Greeley  worked  with  tremendous  in- 
tensity for  the  election  of  Henry  Clay,  but  to  no  pur- 
pose. In  February,  1845,  the  Tribune  office  was 
thoroughly  burnt  out,  but  fortunately  with  no  serious 
loss.  The  paper  was  throughout  completely  opposed 
to  the  Mexican  War.  In  1848,  and  subsequently,  the 
paper  at  first  with  hopeful  enthusiasm  and  at  last  with 
sorrow  chronicled  the  outbreak,  progress  and  fate  of 
the  great  Republican  uprising  in  Europe.  During  the 
same  year  Mr.  Greeley  served  a  three  months'  term  in 
Congress,  signalizing  himself  by  a  persistent  series  of 
attacks  both  in  the  House  and  in  his  paper,  on  the  ex- 
isting practice  in  computing  and  paying  mileage — a 
comparatively  petty  swindle,  mean  enough  doubtless, 
in  itself,  but  very  far  from  being  the  national  evil  most 
prominently  requiring  a  remedy.  This  proceeding 
made  Mr.  Greeley  a  number  of  enemies,  gained  him 
some  inefficient  approbations,  and  did  not  cure  the 
evil.  In  1857  he  went  to  Europe,  to  seethe  "  Crystal 
Palace  "  or  World's  Fair  at  London,  in  that  year.  He 
was  a  member  of  one  of  the  "juries"  which  distrib- 
uted premiums  on  that  occasion ;  investigated  indus- 
trial life  in  England  with  some  care ;  and  gave  some 
significant  and  influential  information  about  newspaper 
matters,  in  testifying  before  a  parliamentary  commit- 
tee on  the  repeal  of  certain  oppressive  taxes  on  news- 
papers. He  made  a  short  trip  to  France  and  Italy ; 
and  on  his  return  home,  reaching  the  dock  at  New 
York  about  6  A.  M.,  he  had  already  made  up  the 
matter  for  an  "  extra,"  while  on  board  the  steamer. 


MR.    GREELEY   AS   WHIG  AND   REPUBLICAN.  309 

He  rushed  at  once  to  the  office,  seizing  the  opportunity 
to  "  beat "  the  other  morning  papers,  by  an  "  exclu- 
sive" extra,  sent  off  for  the  compositors,  who  had  all 
gone  to  bed  at  their  homes ;  began  setting  up  the  mat- 
ter himself;  worked  away  along  with  the  rest  until  his 
exclusive  extra  was  all  ready,  and  then  departed  con- 
tentedly to  his  own  home. 

Mr.  Greeley  had  always  been  a  natural  abolitionist ; 
but,  with  most  of  the  Whig  party,  he  had  been  wil- 
ling to  allow  the  question  of  slavery  to  remain  in  a 
secondary  position  for  a  long  time.  He  was  however 
a  willing,  early,  vigorous  and  useful  member  of  the 
Republican  party,  when  that  party  became  an  unavoid- 
able national  necessity,  as  tne  exponent  of  Freedom. 
With  that  party  he  labored  hard  during  the  Fremont 
campaign,  through  the  times  of  the  Kansas  wars,  and 
for  the  election  of  Mr.  Lincoln.  When  the  Rebellion 
broke  out  he  stood  by  the  nation  to  the  best  of  his 
ability,  and  if  he  gave  mistaken  counsels  at  any  time, 
his  mistakes  were  the  unavoidable  results  of  his  men- 
tal organization,  and  not  in  the  least  due  to  any  con- 
scious swerving  from  principle,  either  in  ethics  or  in 
politics. 

Mr.  Greeley  has  at  various  times  been  spoken  of  as 
a  candidate  for  State  offices,  and  he  undoubtedly  has  a 
certain  share  of  ambition  for  high  political  position — 
an  ambition  which  is  assuredly  entitled  to  be  excused 
if  not  respected  by  American  citizens.  Yet  any  sound 
mind,  it  is  believed,  must  be  forced  to  the  belief  that 
his  highest  and  fittest  place  is  the  Chief  Editor's  chair 
in  the  office  of  The  Tribune.  There  he  wields  a  great, 
a  laboriously  and  honestly  acquii-ed  influence,  an  in- 


310  HORACE    GREELEY. 

flaence  of  the  greatest  importance  to  Society  His 
friends  would  be  sorry  to  see  liim  leuve  that  station 
for  any  other. 

Mr.  Greeley's  character  and  career  as  an  editor  and 

politician  can  be  understood  and  appreciated  by  re- 
membering his  key  note : — Benevolent  ends,  by  utilita- 
rian means. 

He  desires  the  amelioration  of  all  human  conditions 
and  the  instrumentalities  which  he  would  propose  are 
generally  practical,  common  sense  ones.  Of  mag- 
nificence, of  formalities,  of  all  the  conventional  part 
of  life,  whether  in  public  or  private,  he  is  by  na- 
ture as  utterly  neglectful  as  he  is  of  the  dandy  element 
in  costume,  but  he  has  a  solid  and  real  appreciation  of 
many  appreciable  things,  which  go  to  make  up  the 
sum  total  of  human  advancement  and  happiness. 


CHAPTER  Vni. 

DAVID   GLASCOE   FARRAGUT. 

The  Lesson  of  the  Rebellion  to  Monarchs — The  Strength  of  the  United  States — 
The  U  S.  Naval  Service— The  Last  War— State  of  the  Navy  in  1861  — 
Admiral  Farragut  Represents  the  Old  Navy  and  the  New — Charlemagne's 
Physician,  Farraguth — The  Admiral's  Letter  about  his  Family — Ilis  Birth — 
His  Cruise  with  Porter  when  a  Boy  of  Nine — The  Destruction  of  the  Essex — 
Farragut  in  Peace  Times — Expected  to  go  with  the  South — Refuses,  is  Threat- 
ened, and  goes  North — The  Opening  of  the  Mississippi — The  Bay  Fight  at 
Mobile — The  Admiral's  Health — Farragut  and  the  Tobacco  Bishop. 

The  course  and  character  and  result  of  the  Rebell- 
ion taught  many  a  great  new  lesson  ;  in  political  mor- 
als and  in  political  economy  ;  in  international  law ;  in 
the  theory  of  governing;  in  the  significance  of  just  prin- 
ciples on  this  earth.  Perhaps  all  those  lessons,  taught 
so  tremendously  to  the  civilized  world,  might  be 
summed  in  one  expression  ;  the  Astounding  Strength 
of  a  Christian  Republic.  For,  whichever  phase  of  the 
Rebellion  we  examine  in  considering  it  as  a  chapter  of 
novelties  in  the  world's  history,  we  still  come  back  to 
that  one  splendid,  heart-filling  remembrance ; — How  un- 
expected, how  unbelieved,  how  inexhaustible,  how 
magnificent  beyond  all  history,  the  strength  of  the 
United  States ! 

"There  goes  your  Model  Republic,"  sneered  all  the 

Upper  Classes  of  Europe,   "  knocked  into  splinters  in 

the  course   of  one  man's  life !     A  good  riddance !  " 

And  reactionary  Europe  set  instantly  to  work  to  league 

m       20 


312  DAVID    G.    FARRAGUT. 

itself  with  our  own  traitors,  now  that  the  United 
States  was  dead,  to  bury  it  effectively.  But  the  Im- 
perial Republic,  even  more  utterly  unconscious  than 
its  enemies,  of  what  it  could  suffer  and  could  do, 
stunned  at  first  and  reeling  under  a  blow  the  most 
tremendous  ever  aimed  at  any  government,  clung 
close  to  Right  and  Justice,  and  rising  in  its  own  blood, 
went  down  wounded  as  it  was,  into  the  thunder  and 
the  mingled  blinding  lightning  and  darkness  of  the 
great  conflict,  unknowing  and  unfearing  whether  life 
or  death  was  close  before.  As  its  day,  so  was  its 
strength.  As  the  nation's  need  grew  deeper  and  more 
desperate,  in  like  measure  the  nation's  courage,  the 
conscious  calmness,  the  unmoved  resolution,  the 
knowledge  of  strength  and  wealth  and  power,  grew 
more  high  and  strong,  and  wher-eas  the  world  knew 
that  no  nation  had  ever  survived  such  an  assault,  and 
knew,  it  said,  that  ours  would  not,  lo  and  behold, 
the  United  States  achieved  things  beyond  all  compar- 
ison more  unheard  of,  more  wonderful,  than  even  the 
treasonable  explosion  for  whose  deadly  catastrophe  all 
the  monarchists  stood  joyfully  waiting.  They  were 
disappointed.  And  ever  since,  they  know  that  if  the 
Rebellion  was  not  the  death-toll  of  R,epublics,  it  was 
the  death-toll  of  many  other  things,  and  ever  since,  all 
the  kings  are  setting  their  houses  in  order. 

There  were  three  great  national  material  instrumen- 
talities which  the  Free  Christian  People  of  the  United 
States  created  in  their  peril,  being  the  sole  means  which 
could  have  won  in  the  war,  and  being  moreover  ex- 
actly the  means  which  England  and  Europe  asserted 
that  we  were  peculiarly  unable  to  create  or  to  use ; 


THE    NAVY    IN    1861.  313 

they  were  :  the  Supply  of  Money ;  the  Army  on  the 
land,  and  the  Fleet  on  the  sea. 

Of  these  three,  the  story  of  the  fleet  has  a  peculiar 
interest  of  its  own.  The  United  States  Navy  was 
always  a  popular  service  in  the  country,  for  the  adven- 
turous genius  and  inventive  faculties  of  our  people, 
developed  and  stimulated  by  its  successful  prosecution 
of  commerce,  had  easily  dealt  with  the  naval  prob- 
lems of  fifty  years  ago.  In  the  war  of  1812,  the  su- 
perior skill  of  our  shipbuilders  and  sailors  launched 
and  navigated  a  small  but  swift  and  powerful  and  well 
managed  navy,  and  the  single  common-sense  applica- 
tion of  sights  for  aiming,  to  our  ship-guns,  in  like  man- 
ner as  to  muskets,  gave  our  sailors  a  murderous  supe- 
riority in  sea  fights  which  won  us  many  a  victory. 

But  in  times  of  peace,  a  free  nation  almost  necessa- 
rily falls  behind  a  standing  army  nation  in  respect  of 
military  and  naval  mechanism  and  stored  material  and 
readiness  of  organization  ;  and  accordinglj^,  after  forty 
years  of  little  but  disuse,  our  navy,  as  the  muscles  of 
an  arm  shrink  away  if  it  is  left  unmoved,  showed  little 
of  the  latest  improvements  in  construction  and  arma- 
ment, and  indeed  there  was  very  little  navy  to  show 
at  all.  At  Mr.  Lincoln's  inauguration,  the  whole  navy 
of  the  United  States  consisted  of  seventy-six  vessels, 
carrying  1,783  guns;  and  of  these,  only  twelve  were 
within  reach,  so  effectively  had  Mr.  Buchanan's  Secre- 
tary of  the  Navy,  Toucey,  dispersed  them  in  readiness 
for  the  secession  schemes  of  his  fellows  in  the  cabinet. 
And  even  of  those  twelve,  but  a  few  were  in  Northern 
ports.  The  navy  conspirators  had  no  mind  to  have  a 
southern  blockade  brought  down  on  them,  and  so  took 


314  DATED    G.    FAERAGUT. 

good  care  to  send  our  best  ships  on  long  fancy  Toy- 
ages  to  Japan  or  otherwhere — and  to  clap  on  board 
of  them  certain  officers  whose  loyalty  and  ability  they 
wished  to  put  out  of  the  way.  Thus  General  Ripley 
found  himself,  to  his  indignation,  over  in  Asia  when 
the  explosion  took  place. 

It  was  from  this  beginning — practically  nothing — 
that  the  energy  and  skill  of  American  inventors  and 
seamen  created  a  navy  beyond  comparison  the  strong- 
est on  the  face  of  the  earth,  reaching  a  strength  of  600 
ships,  and  51,000  men ;  which  effectively  maintained 
the  most  immense  and  difficult  blockade  of  history ; 
which  performed  with  brilhant  and  glorious  success, 
enterprises  whose  importance  and  danger  are  equal  to 
anv  chronicled  in  the  wonderful  annals  of  the  sea ; 
which  fully  completed  its  own  indispensable  share  in 
the  work  of  subduing  the  rebellion ;  and  which  rev- 
olutionized the  theory  and  practice  of  naval  warfare. 

In  this  chapter  of  the  history  of  the  navy  the  most 
famous  name  is  that  of  Admiral  Farragut,  not  so  much 
in  consequence  of  any  identification  with  the  mechan- 
ical inventions  of  the  day,  as  because  his  past  profes- 
sional career  and  his  recent  brilliant  and  daring  victo- 
ries, have  linked  together  the  elder  with  the  younger 
fame  of  our  navy,  and  have  done  it  by  the  exercise  of 
professional  and  personal  courage  and  skill,  rather  than 
by  the  ingenious  use  of  newly  discovered  scientific 
auxiliaries.  The  hardy  courage  of  unmailed  breasts 
always  appeals  more  strongly  to  admiration  and  sympa- 
thy, than  that  more  thoughtful  and  doubtless  wiser  pro- 
ceeding which  would  win  fights  from  behind  invul- 
nerable protections. 


ADMIRAL   FARRAGUt's   FAMILY.  315 

A  friend  of  the  writer  was,  during  the  Rebellion, 
investigating  some  subject  connected  with  the  history 
of  medicine.  In  one  of  the  books  he  examined  he 
found  mention  made  of  Charlemagne's  physician,  a 
wonderfully  skilful  and  learned  man,  named  i^(2rro^?<^A. 
Our  famous  Admiral  was  then  in  the  Gulf  of  Mexico, 
engaged  in  the  preparations  for  the  attack  on  Mobile 
which  took  place  during  August  of  that  year.  So  odd 
was  this  coincidence,  that  its  discoverer  wrote  to  the 
Admiral  to  ask  whether  he  knew  anything  of  this  med- 
iaeval doctor,  and  received  in  reply  a  very  friendly 
and  agreeably  written  letter,  from  which  some  extracts 
may  here  be  given  without  any  violation  of  confidence, 
as  giving  the  most  authentic  information  about  his  an- 
cestry. 

"  My  own  name  is  probably  Castilian.  My  grand- 
father came  from  Ciudadela,  in  the  island  of  Minorca. 
I  know  nothing  of  the  history  of  my  family  before 
they  came  to  this  country  and  settled  in  Florida.  You 
may  remember  that  in  the  17th  century,  a  colony  set- 
tled there,  and  among  them,  I  believe,  was  my  grand- 
father. My  father  served  through  the  war  of  Inde- 
pendence, and  was  at  the  battle  of  the  Cowpens. 
Judge  Anderson,  formerly  Comptroller  of  the  Treas- 
urer, has  frequently  told  me  that  my  father  received 
his  majority  from  George  Washington  on  the  same  day 
with  himself;  and  his  children  have  always  supposed 
that  this  promotion  was  for  his  good  conduct  in  that 
fight.  Notwithstanding  this  statement  *  *  *  * 
I  have  never  been  able  to  find  my  father's  name  in  any 
list  of  the  officers  of  the  Revolution. 


316  DAVID    G.    FARRAGUT. 

"  With  two  men,  Ogden  and  McKee,  lie  was  after- 
wards one  of  the  early  settlers  of  Tennessee.  Mr. 
McKee  was  a  member  of  Congress  from  Alabama,  and 
once  stopped  in  Norfolk,  where  I  was  then  residing,  on 
purpose,  as  he  said,  to  see  me,  as  the  son  of  his  early- 
friend.  He  said  he  had  heard  that  I  was  "a  chip  of 
the  old  block  " — what  sort  of  a  block  it  was  I  know  not. 
This  was  thirty  years  ago.  My  father  settled  twelve 
miles  from  Knoxville,  at  a  place  called  Campbell's  Sta- 
tion, on  the  river,  where  Burnside  had  his  fight. 
Thence  we  moved  to  the  South,  about  the  time  of  the 
Wilkinson  and  Blennerhassett  trouble.  My  flither  was 
then  appointed  a  master  in  the  Navy,  and  sent  to  New 
Orleans  in  command  of  one  of  the  gunboats.  Hence 
the  impression  that  I  am  a  native  of  New  Orleans. 
But  all  my  father's  children  were  born  in  Tennessee, 
and  as  I  have  said  in  answer  to  enquiries  on  this  sub- 
ject, we  only  moved  South  to  crush  out  a  couple  of 
rebellions. 

"  My  mother  died  of  yellow  fever  the  first  summer  in 
New  Orleans,  and  my  father  setttled  at  Pascagoula,  in 
Mississippi.  He  continued  to  serve  throughout  the 
'  last  war,'  and  was  at  the  battle  of  New  Orleans,  un- 
der Commodore  Paterson,  though  very  infirm  at  that 
time.  He  died  the  following  year,  and  my  brothers 
and  sisters  married  in  and  about  New  Orleans,  where 
their  descendants  still  remain.  *         *         *         * 

"As  to  the  name,  Gen.  Goicouria,  a  Spanish  hidalgo 
from  Cuba,  tells  me  it  is  Castilian,  and  is  spelled  in  the 
same  way  as  the  old  physician's — Farraguth." 

Admiral  David  Glascoe  Farragut  was  born  at  Camp- 
bell's Station,  in  East  Tennessee,  in  1801.     While  only 


farragut's  cruise  with  porter.  317 

a  little  boy,  at  nine  years  of  age,  his  father,  who  had 
been  a  friend  and  shipmate  of  the  hardy  sea-king.  Com- 
modore Porter,  procured  him  a  midshipman's  berth 
under  that  commander,  and  the  boy,  accompanying 
Porter  in  the  romantic  cruise  of  the  Essex,  served  a 
right  desperate  apprenticeship  to  his  hazardous  pro- 
fession. His  first  sea-fight  was  the  short  fierce  combat 
of  Porter  in  the  Essex,  on  April  13th,  1812,  with  the 
English  sloop-of-war,  Alert.  No  sooner  did  the  Alert 
spy  the  Essex,  than  she  ran  confidently  close  upon  her 
weather  quarter,  and  with  three  cheers  opened  her 
broadside.  Porter,  not  a  whit  abashed,  replied  with 
such  swift  fury  that  the  Englishman,  smashed  into  drown- 
ing helplessness,  and  with  seven  feet  of  water  in  his 
hold,  struck  his  colors  in  eight  minutes,  escaping  out 
of  the  fight  by  surrender  even  more  hastily  than  he 
had  gone  into  it. 

In  that  desperate  and  bloody  fight  in  Valparaiso 
harbor,  when  the  British  captain  Hillyar,  with  double 
the  force  of  the  Essex,  and  by  means  of  a  most  dis- 
creditable breach  of  the  law  of  neutrality,  made  an 
end  of  the  Essex,  Midshipman  Farragut,  twelve 
years  of  age,  stood  by  his  commander  to  the  very  last. 
When  those  who  could  swim  ashore  had  been  ordered 
overboard.  Porter  himself,  having  helped  work  the 
few  remaining  guns  that  could  be  fired,  hauled  down 
his  flag,  and  surrendered  the  bloody  wreck  that  was 
all  he  had  left  under  him,  for  the  sake  of  the  helpless 
wounded  men  who  must  have  sunk  along  with  him. 
Farragut  was  wounded,  and  was  sent  home  with  the 
other  officers  of  the  ship,  on  parole;  and  Porter,  in 
his  report  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  made  special 


318  DAVID   G.    FARRAGUT. 

and  honorable  mention  of  tlie  lad,  and  mentioned  with 
the  appropriate  regret  of  a  just  and  brave  man,  that 
the  boy  was  "too  young  for  promotion."  Probably 
not  another  living  man  on  the  face  of  the  earth  had 
so  early  and  so  thorough  a  baptism  of  blood  and  fire, 
and  bore  himself  through  it  so  manlike. 

Commodore  Porter  had  been  so  much  interested  in 
the  youth  that  he  gave  him  the  means  of  pursuing  an 
education  in  general  studies  and  military  tactics.  But 
Farragut's  vocation  was  the  sea,  and  as  soon  as  the 
war  was  over  he  got  another  ship.  Peace  is  the  win- 
ter of  soldiers  and  sailors ;  when  they  sit  still  and  wait 
for  the  deadly  harvest  that  brings  them  prosperity. 
The  times  were  as  dull  for  Farragut  as  for  the  rest, 
and  for  forty-five  years  he  was  sailing  about  the  world 
or  quietly  commanding  at  one  or  another  station,  and  at 
long  intervals  rising  by  seniority  from  one  grade  to 
another.  In  1825  he  became  lieutenant,  in  1841  com- 
mander, in  1851  captain.  When  the  rebellion  came 
he  was  sixty  years  old,  had  been  in  the  service  forty- 
eight  years,  and  to  the  country  at  large  was  utterly 
unknown.  This  is  not  strange  ;  for  throughout  all  his 
youth  and  manhood  he  had  had  no  opportunity  to 
show  the  heroic  qualities  which  when  a  boy  of  twelve 
he  had  proved  himself  to  possess  even  then  in  such 
manly  measure. 

He  was  living  at  Norfolk;  was  a  native  of  the 
South ;  and  his  second  wife,  with  whom  he  was  now 
living,  was  from  a  Norfolk  family.  It  was  therefore 
taken  for  granted  that  Farragut  would  go  with  the 
South,  and  when  he  frankly  avowed  his  patriotism,  he 
was  met  with   astonishment   and   then  with  threats. 


THE    OPENING    OF    THE    MISSISSIPPI.  319 

They  told  him  it  would  probably  be  unsafe  for  him  to 
remain  in  the  South,  with  such  sentiments.  "Very 
well,"  he  replied,  "I  will  go  where  I  can  live  Avith 
such  sentiments."  Accordingly,  he  left  Norfolk  for 
the  North  on  the  night  of  April  18,  1861,  the  very 
night  before  the  rebels  there  fired  the  navy -yard.  He 
established  himself  for  a  time  near  Tarrytown,  on  the 
Hudson  river.  The  very  air  was  full  of  suspicion  iu 
those  days,  and  Captain  Farragut  being  unknown  to 
the  people  in  the  vicinity,  and  walking  about  in  the 
fields  alone  a  good  deal,  a  report  got  out  at  one  time 
among  the  neighbors  that  he  was  one  of  a  gang  that 
had  arranged  to  cut  the  Croton  Aqueduct  and  burn 
down  New  York. 

Farragut's  very  first  appointment  was  that  to  the 
command  of  the  naval  part  of  the  New  Orleans  expe- 
dition, for  which  his  orders  reached  him  January  20, 
1862,  and  on  Feb.  3d,  in  his  famous  flag-ship,  the 
Hartford,  he  sailed  from  Hampton  Roads  for  Ship 
Island. 

The  opening  of  the  Mississij^pi  river  has  passed 
into  history.  Of  all  the  series  of  strange  and  novel 
and  desperate  combats  which  accomplished  the  task, 
the  passage  of  the  forts  and  the  capture  of  New  Or- 
leans was  beyond  comparison  the  most  dangerous  and 
difiicult,  and  its  success  was  the  most  brilliant.  The 
services  which  succeeded  this  were  less  showy,  but 
included  much  that  was  excessively  laborious,  and 
that  was  dangerous  enough  for  any  ordinary  ambition ; 
and  from  beginning  to  end  the  whole  task  required 
not  only  high  courage,  indefatigable  activity,  inces- 
sant labor,  and  the  ordinary  professional  knowledge 


320  DAVID    G.    FARRAGUT. 

of  a  sailor,  but  an  invention  always  ready  to  contrive 
new  means  for  new  ends,  prompt  judgment  to  adopt 
tliem  if  suggested  by  others,  wisdom  and  tact  in  deal- 
ing with  the  rebel  authorities,  and  patience  in  waiting 
for  the  co-operation  of  the  mihtary  forces  or  the  de- 
velopment of  the  plans  of  the  government.  In  carry- 
ing his  fleet  past  Port  Hudson  and  Vicksburg,  in  help- 
ing Grant  to  cross  the  river  and  take  the  latter  place, 
in  all  his  operations,  whether  alone  or  with  the  land 
commanders,  Admiral  Farragut  gave  proof  of  the  pos- 
session of  all  these  qualities. 

The  "Bay  Fight"  at  Mobile,  and  the  resulting  cap- 
ture of  Forts  Powell  and  Gaines,  was  another  scene  as 
terrible  as  New  Orleans,  and  still  more  splendidly 
illuminated  by  the  perfect  personal  courage  of  the 
Admiral,  who  has  already  gone  into  history,  song  and 
painting,  as  he  stood  lashed  in  the  rigging  of  the  old 
Hartford,  clear  above  the  smoke  of  the  battle,  and, 
even  when  he  saw  the  monitor  Tecumseh  sunk — the 
very  ship  he  had  been  waiting  for  for  months — yet 
ordered  his  wooden  fleet  straight  forward  despite  forts, 
gunboats,  ram  and  torpedoes,  and  won  a  second  vic- 
tory of  that  most  glorious  sort  only  possible  to  the 
high,  clear  and  intelligent  courage  of  a  leader  who  is 
both  truly  heroic  and  truly  wise. 

The  fame  which  the  Admiral  earned  in  the  war  has 
been  in  some  measure  paid  him,  in  the  testimonials  of 
admiration  and  respect  which  he  has  received  both  at 
home  and  abroad.  It  would  require  a  book  to  give 
account  of  the  greetings  and  the  thanks  he  has  re- 
ceived from  his  own  countrymen ;  and  on  the  official 
voyage  w^hich  he  has  made  since  the  war  to  the  prin- 


FARRAGUT   AND    THE    TOBACCO   BISHOP.  321 

cipal  ports  of  Europe,  as  the  representative  of  the 
naval  power  of  the  United  States.  The  civilities  and 
attentions  conferred  upon  himself  and  his  officers,  were 
not  solely  that  formal  politeness  which  one  nation  ob- 
serves to  another,  but  were  in  large  measure  the  more 
enthusiastic  acknowledgment  which  men  pay  to  lofty 
personal  qualities. 

Admiral  Farragut  is  a  man  of  remarkably  pure  and 
vigorous  health,  and  though  no  longer  young,  is  more 
elastic,  vigorous  and  enduring  than  most  young  men. 
His  health  and  strength  are  the  just  recompense  for  a 
cleanly  and  temperate  life.  He  seems  to  have  that 
sort  of  innate  or  constitutional  abhorrence  for  every 
unclean  thing,  which  has  characterized  some  great  re- 
formers. There  is  a  pleasant  story  of  a  rebuke  once 
administered  by  him  in  a  most  neat  and  decorous,  but 
very  effective  manner,  to  a  tobacco-smoking  bishop, 
which  conveys  a  good  lesson.  At  dinner  with  Farra- 
gut, and  after  the  meal  was  over,  the  Bishop,  about  to 
select  a  cigar,  offered  the  bunch  to  the  sailor.  "Have  a 
cigar.  Admiral?"  said  he.  "No,  Bishop,"  said  the 
Admiral,  with  a  quizzical  glance,  "  I  don't  smoke — / 
swear  a  little^  sometimes.'''' 

We  regret  that  the  limits  of  our  sketches  do  not 
O-llow  us  to  do  justice  to  those  wonderful,  inspiring, 
romantic  scenes  by  which  our  navy  gained  possession 
of  New  Orleans  and  Mobile.  But  if  one  wants  to 
read  them  in  poetry,  terse  and  vivid,  with  all  the  fire 
of  poetry  and  all  the  explicitness  of  prose,  we  beg 
them  to  read  the  "River  Fight,"  and  "Bay  Fight,"  of 
Henry  Brownell,  who  was  in  both  scenes  as  a  volunteer 


321i  DAVID    G.    FARRAGUT. 

officer.     There   lie  will  find  Homeric  military  ardor 
baptized  by  Christian  sentiment. 

Full  red  the  furnace  fires  must  glow, 

That  melts  the  ore  of  mortal  kind; 
The  mills  of  God  are  grinding  slow, 

But  ah,  how  close  they  grind ! 
To-day  the  Dahlgren  and  the  drum 

Are  dread  Apostles  of  his  name, 
His  kingdom  here  can  only  come 

In  chiisni  of  blood  and  flame. 


I 


i 


CHAPTEE   IX. 

JOHN    ALBION    ANDREW. 

Governor  Andrew's  Death  Caused  by  the  War — The  Governors  Dr.  Beecher 
Prayed  for — Governor  Andrew  a  Christian  Governor — Gov.  Andrew's  Birth — 
He  goes  to  Boston  to  Study  Law — Not  Averse  to  Unfashionable  and  Unpopu- 
lar Causes — His  Cheerfulness  and  Social  Accomplishments — His  Sunday 
School  Work — Lives  Plainly — His  Clear  Foresight  of  the  War — Sends  a 
Thousand  Men  to  Wasliington  in  One  Day — Storj'  of  the  Blue  Overcoats — 
The  Telegram  for  the  Bodies  of  the  Dead  of  Baltimore — Gov.  Andrew's  Ten- 
der Care  for  the  Poor — The  British  Minister  and  the  Colored  Women — The 
Governor's  Ivindness  to  the  Soldier's  Wife — His  Biblical  Proclamations — The 
Thanksgiving  Proclamation  of  1861 — The  Proclamation  of  18G2 — His  Interest 
in  the  Schools  for  the  Richmond  Poor — Cotton  Mather's  Eulogv  on  Governor 
Winthrop — Gov.  Andrew's  Farewell  Address  to  the  Massachusetts  Legislature 
— State  Gratitude  to  Governor  Andrew's  Family. 

Among  the  many  heroic  men  who  have  sacrificed 
their  lives  in  the  great  battle  of  liberty  in  our  country, 
there  is  no  one  who  deserves  a  more  honored  memory 
than  John  A.  Andrew,  Governor  of  Massachusetts. 

We  speak  of  him  as  dying  in  battle,  for  it  is  our 
conviction  that  Governor  Andrew  was  as  really  a  vic- 
tim of  the  war  as  if,  like  Lincoln,  he  had  been  shot 
down  by  a  bullet.  His  death  was  caused  by  an  over 
tax  of  the  brain  in  the  critical  and  incessant  labors  of 
the  five  years'  war.  He  had  been  previously  warned 
by  a  physician  that  any  such  strain  would  expose  him 
to  such  a  result,  so  that  in  meeting  the  duties  and  exi- 
gencies of  his  office  at  the  time  he  did,  he  just  as  cer- 
tainly knew  that  he  was  exposing  himself  to  sudden 
death  as  the  man  who  goes  into  battle.     He  did  not 


326  JOHN   A.    ANDREW. 

fail  till  the  battle  was  over  and  the  victory  won,  then 
with  a  smile  of  peace  on  his  lips,  he  went  to  rest  by 
the  side  of  Lincoln. 

It  was  a  customary  form  in  the  prayers  of  the  Rev. 
Dr.  Beecher,  to  offer  the  petition  that  God  would 
make  our  "Governors  as  at  the  first,  and  our  counsel- 
lors as  at  the  beginning."  These  words,  spoken  with  a 
yearning  memory  of  the  old  days  of  the  pilgrim 
fathers,  when  religion  was  the  law  of  the  land,  and  the 
laws  and  ordinances  of  Christ  were  the  standard  of 
the  government,  found  certainly  a  fulfillment  in  the 
exaltation  of  John  A.  Andrew  to  be  the  Governor  of 
Massachusetts. 

It  has  been  said  of  Lincoln  by  a  French  statesman 
that  he  presents  to  the  world  a  new  type  of  pure, 
Christian  statesmanship.  In  the  same  manner  it  may 
be  said  of  John  A.  Andrew,  that  he  presents  a  type 
of  a  consistently  Christian  State  Governor. 

The  noble  men  of  America  who  have  just  consum- 
mated in  the  37th  and  38th  Congresses  the  sublimest 
national  and  moral  reform  the  world  ever  "saw,  are  the 
spiritual  children  of  the  pilgrim  fathers.  So  are  Gar- 
rison, Phillips,  John  Brown,  and  other  external  helpers 
in  bringing  on  the  great  day  of  moral  victory.  They 
were  men  either  tracing  their  descent  in  lineal  blood 
to  Puritan  parentage,  or  like  Garrison,  spiritually  born 
of  the  eternal  influences  which  they  left  in  the  air  of 
the  society  they  moulded. 

These  sons  of  the  Puritans  do  not,  it  is  true,  in  all 
points  hold  the  technical  creed  of  their  ancestors,  any 
more  than  the  Puritans  held  the  creed  of  the  genera- 
tion just  before  them.     Progress  was  the  root  idea 


A    CHRISTIAN    GOVERNOR.  327 

with  the  Puritans,  and  as  they  stood  far  in  advance  in 
matters  of  opinion,  so  their  sons  in  many  respects 
stand  at  a  different  line  from  them ;  in  tliis,  quite  as 
much  as  in  anything  else,  proving  their  sonship.  The 
parting  charge  of  the  old  pastor  Robinson  to  the  little 
band  of  pilgrims  was  of  necessity  a  seed  of  changes 
of  opinion  as  time  should  develop  fit  causes  of  change. 

''If  God  reveal  anything  unto  you  by  any  other 
instrument  of  his,  be  ready  to  receive  it  as  ever  you 
were  to  receive  any  truth  by  my  ministry ;  for  I  am 
verily  persuaded  and  confident  that  the  Lord  hath  much 
truth  yet  to  break  forth  ffom  his  holy  word.  For  my 
part,  I  cannot  sufficiently  bewail  the  condition  of  the 
reformed  churches  who  are  come  to  a  period  in  their 
religion,  and  will  go  at  present  no  further  than  the 
instruments  of  their  first  reformation.  The  Lutherans 
cannot  be  drawn  to  go  beyond  what  Luther  said ;  and 
whatsoever  part  of  his  will  our  good  God  has  imparted 
unto  Calvin  they  will  rather  die  than  embrace  it.  And 
the  Calvinists  you  see  stick  fast  where  they  were  left 
by  that  great  man  of  God,  who  yet  saw  not  all  things." 

But  that  part  of  the  Puritan  idea  which  consisted 
in  unhesitating  loyalty  to  Jesus  Christ  as  master  in 
practical  affairs,  and  an  unflinching  determination  to 
apply  his  principles  and  precepts  to  the  conduct  of  so- 
ciety, and  to  form  and  reform  all  things  in  the  state  by 
them,  was  that  incorruptible  seed  which  has  descended 
from  generation  to  generation  in  Massachusetts,  and 
shown  itself  in  the  course  of  those  noble  men  who 
have  brought  on  and  carried  through  the  late  great 
revolution.  This  recent  conflict  has  been  in  fact  a 
great  revival  of  religion^  by  which  the  precepts  of  the 


328  JOHN   A.    ANDREW. 

Sermon  on  the  Mount  have  been  established  in  polit- 
ical forms. 

John  Albion  Andrew  was  born  in  the  little  town  of 
Windham,  Cumberland  county,  Maine.  It  was  like 
the  most  of  the  nests  where  New  England  greatness 
is  hatched — a  little,  cold,  poor,  barren  mountain  town, 
where  the  winter  rages  for  six  months  of  the  year. 
We  hear  of  him  in  these  days  as  a  sunny-faced,  curly- 
headed  boy,  full  of  fun  and  frolic  and  kind-hearted- 
ness, and  we  can  venture  to  say  how  he  pattered  bare- 
footed after  the  cows  in  the  dim  grey  of  summer 
mornings,  how  he  was  forward  to  put  on  the  tea-kettle 
for  mother,  and  always  inexhaustible  in  obligingness, 
how  in  winter  he  drew  the  girls  to  school  on  his  sled, 
and  was  doughty  and  valiant  in  defending  snow  forts, 
and  how  his  arm  and  prowess  were  always  for  the 
weak  against  the  strong  and  for  the  right  against  the 
wrong.  All  these  inherent  probabilities  might  be 
wrought  into  myths  and  narratives,  which  would  truly 
represent  the  boy  who  was  father  to  the  man,  John 
A.  Andrew. 

He  graduated  from  Bowdoin  College  in  the  class  of 
1837,  and  came  to  Boston  to  study  law  in  the  office 
of  Henry  H.  Fuller,  whence  in  1840,  he  was  admitted 
to  the  bar. 

During  the  earlier  portions  of  his  educational  career, 
both  in  college  and  at  the  bar,  he  had  no  very  brilliant 
successes.  He  had  little  ambition  to  dazzle  or  shine, 
or  seek  for  immediate  effect ;  he  was  indifferent  to 
academic  honors,  his  heart  and  mind  being  set  upon 
higher  things.  He  read  and  studied  broadly  and 
carefully,  in  reference  to  his  whole  manhood  rather 


NOT  AVERSE  TO  UNFASHIONABLE  CAUSES.    329 

than  to  tlie  exigencies  of  a  passing  occasion.  Besides 
his  legal  studies,  he  was  a  widely  read  belles-lettres 
student,  and  his  memory  was  most  retentive  of  all 
sorts  of  literature,  grave  and  gay,  tragic  and  comic. 
He  was  one  that  took  the  journey  of  life  in  a  leisurely 
way,  stopping  to  admire  prospects  and  to  gather  the 
flowers  as  he  went  on. 

From  the  very  earliest  of  his  associations  in  Boston, 
he  allied  himself  not  only  with  popular  and  acceptable 
forms  of  philanthropy,  but  also  with  those  which  were 
under  the  ban  of  polite  society.  One  who  knew  him 
well  says:  "Few  men  were  connected  with  so  many 
unpopular  and  unfashionable  causes.  Indeed,  it  was 
only  sufficient  to  know  that  an  alliance  with  any  cause 
was  considered  to  involve  some  loss  of  social  caste,  or 
business  patronage,  to  be  pretty  sure  that  John  A. 
Andrew  was  allied  with  it." 

His  cheerful,  jovial  spmt,  and  the  joyousness  with 
which  he  accepted  the  reproach  of  a  cause,  took  from 
it  the  air  of  martyrdom.  His  exquisite  flow  of  natu- 
ral humor  oiled  and  lubricated  the  play  of  his  moral 
faculties,  so  that  a  gay  laugh  instead  of  an  indignant 
denunciation  would  be  the  weapon  with  which  he 
Would  meet  injurious  language  or  treatment  heaped 
on  him  for  conscience  sake.  Like  Lincoln,  he  had  the 
happy  faculty  of  being  able  to  laugh  where  crying 
did  no  good,  and  the  laughter  of  some  good  men,  we 
doubt  not,  is  just  as  sacred  in  heavenly  eyes  as  the 
tears  of  others.  They  who  tried  to  put  men  under  so- 
ciety's ban  for  their  conscientious  opinions,  got  loss  on 
their  own  side  in  excluding  Andrew,  since  no  man  had 

in  a  higher  degree  all  the  arts  and  faculties  of  agreeable- 
21 


330  JOHN  A.    ANDREW. 

ness  in  society.  No  man  had  a  wider  or  more  varied 
flow  of  conversation.  No  man  could  tell  a  better 
story  or  sing  a  gayer  song.  No  man  was  more  gifted 
with  that  electrical  power  of  animal  cheerfulness, 
which  excites  others  to  gayety  and  mirth.  In  the  in- 
tervals of  the  gravest  cases,  when  pressed  down,  over- 
whelmed, and  almost  bewildered,  he  would  still  find 
spare  hours  when  at  the  bedside  of  some  desponding 
invalid,  or  in  the  cheerless  chamber  of  old  age,  he 
would  make  all  ring  again  with  a  flow  of  mimicry  and 
wit  and  fun,  as  jolly  as  a  bob-o-link  on  a  clover  head. 

Some  of  the  most  affecting  testimonials  to  his  worth 
come  from  these  obscure  and  secluded  sources.  One 
aged  friend  of  seventy  or  more,  tells  how  daily,  amid 
all  the  cares  of  the  state  house  and  the  war,  he  found 
some  interval  to  come  in  and  shed  a  light  and  cheer- 
fulness in  her  shaded  chamber. 

His  pastor  speaks  of  him  as  performing  the  duties 
of  a  Sunday  school  superintendent  during  the  labors 
of  his  arduous  station.  He  was  a  lover  of  children 
and  young  people,  and  love  made  labor  light.  While 
he  did  not  hesitate,  when  necessary,  to  carry  forward 
the  great  public  cause  on  the  Sabbath  day,  yet  his 
heart  and  inclinations  ever  inclined  him  to  the  more 
purely  devotional  uses  of  those  sacred  hours.  The 
flame  of  devotion  in  his  heart  was  ever  burning  be- 
neath the  crust  of  earthly  cares,  but  ready  to  flame 
up  brightly  in  those  hours  consecrated  by  the  tradi- 
tions of  his  Puritan  education. 

In  one  respect  Governor  Andrew  was  not  patterned 
on  the  old  first  magistrates  of  Massachusetts.  Massa- 
chusetts was  at  first  decidedly  an  aristocratic  commu- 


LIVES   PLAINLY.  331 

nity.  A  certain  of  idea  rank  and  stateliness  hedged  in 
the  office  of  the  governor.  He  stood  above  the  peo- 
ple at  an  awful  distance  and  moved  among  them  as  a 
sort  of  superior  being. 

Nothing  could  be  more  opposed  to  the  frank,  com- 
panionable nature  of  Governor  Andrew  than  any  such 
idea.  He  was  a  true  democrat  to  the  tips  of  his  finger 
nails,  and  considered  a  Governor  only  as  the  servant 
of  the  people.  In  this  respect,  more  truly  than 
even  the  first  Puritan  governors,  did  he  express  the 
idea  given  by  Christ  of  rank  and  dignity,  "Whosoev- 
er will  be  chief  among  you  let  him  be  your  servant." 

Governor  Andrew  from  the  first  rejected  and  dis- 
claimed everything  which  seemed  to  mark  him  out 
from  the  people  by  outward  superiority.  He  chose  to 
live  in  a  small,  plain  house,  in  a  retired  and  by  no 
means  fashionable  part  of  the  city,  and  to  conduct  all 
his  family  arrangements  on  a  scale  of  the  utmost  sim- 
plicity. When  the  idea  was  suggested  to  him  that 
the  Governor  of  Massachusetts  ought  to  have  some 
extra  provision  to  enable  him  to  appear  with  more 
worldly  pomp  and  stateliness,  he  repelled  it  with  en- 
ergy, "Never,  while  the  country  was  struggling  under 
such  burdens,  and  her  brave  men  bearing  such  priva- 
tions in  the  field,  would  he  accept  of  anything  more 
than  the  plain  average  comforts  of  a  citizen."  The 
usual  traditional  formulas  and  ceremonials  of  his  posi- 
tion were  only  irksome  and  embarrassing  to  him.  One 
of  his  aids  relates  that  being  induced  by  urgent  solic- 
itation to  have  the  accustomed  military  coat  of  the 
Governor  of  Massachusetts,  with  all  its  gold  lace  and 
buttons,  he  wore  it  twice,  and  then  returning  with  his 


332  JOHN  A.    ANDREW. 

aids  to  Ms  private  cabinet,  he  pulled  it  off  and  threw 
it  impatiently  into  a  corner,  saying,  "Lie  there,  old 
coat — you  won't  find  me  wearing  you  again,  soon." 
The  ceremonies  on  public  occasions  were  always  irk- 
some and  fatiguing  to  him,  and  he  would  recreate 
himself  by  singing  "Johnny  Schmauker"  with  his  aids 
in  his  private  apai'tments  afterwards.  We  think  good 
Governor  Winthrop  would  have  rolled  up  his  eyes  in 
horror  at  such  carelessness  of  etiquette  and  station. 

As  a  public  man,  Governor  Andrew  was  distin- 
guished for  quickness,  perspicasity,  and  energy.  The 
electric,  social  element  of  his  being  made  him  an 
apt  reader  of  human  nature,  and  gave  him  that 
prophetic  insight  into  what  would  arise  from  the  do- 
ings of  men,  which  enabled  him  to  see  afar  off  and 
provide  for  possible  emergencies.  Thus  at  the  time 
he  was  appointed  Governor,  nothing  was  farther  from 
the  thoughts  of  the  body  of  Northern  men  than  that 
there  could  ever  be  really  and  in  fact  a  war  in  Amer- 
ica. All  the  war  talk  and  war  threats  that  had  come 
from  the  South  had  been  pleasantly  laughed  at,  as 
mere  political  catch  words  and  nursery  tales  meant  to 
fi'ighten  children. 

But  Andrew  felt  the  atmosphere  chilling  with  the 
coming  storm,  and  from  the  moment  of  his  election, 
he  began  making  active  preparations  for  war,  which 
were  at  the  time  as  much  laughed  at  as  Noah's  for  the 
flood. 

But  the  time  came  which  the  laughers  and  skeptics 
said  would  not  come,  and  behold  on  the  15th  of  April, 
the  President's  requisition  for  troops  1  Thanks  to  the 
previous  steps  taken  by  Governor  Andrew,  the  Mas- 


FIRST   UNIFORMED    REGIMENT   IN   WASHINGTON.       333 

sachusetts  sixth  regiment  started  from  Boston  in  the 
afternoon  of  the  17th,  leaving  the  4th  all  but  ready  to 
follow.  Only  one  day  was  necessary  to  get  a  thousand 
men  started — and  this  company  was  the  first  that  en- 
tered Washington  in  uniform  and  with  all  the  moral 
effect  of  uniformed  soldiers.  This  leads  us  to  the 
celebrated  story  of  the  blue  overcoats,  which  is  this : 
Shortly  after  Lincoln's  election,  Benjamin  F.  Butler 
took  tea  with  Jefferson  Davis  in  Washington,  and  there 
satisfied  himself  in  personal  conversation  that  a  war 
must  be  the  result  of  the  machinations  that  were  go- 
ing on.  He  posted  to  Boston  and  communicated  what 
he  knew  to  Governor  Andrew,  who  immediately  called 
a  secret  session  of  the  legislature  in  which  he  told  the 
crisis  and  asked  for  an  appropriation  to  get  troops  in 
readiness.  They  voted  twenty-five  thousand  dollars 
which  Governor  Andrew  put  into  arms,  ammunition 
and  stores  for  an  immediate  equipment  for  the  field. 
Among  other  things,  he  had  two  or  three  thousand 
army  overcoats  made  and  stored  in  the  State  house. 

When  the  call  came,  the  sixth  regiment  had  not  half 
a  quota,  but  was  immediately  made  up  by  the  fiery  zeal 
of  enlisting  citizens,  who  contended  for  places  and 
even  paid  large  bounties  to  buy  the  chance  to  go. 
They  came  into  Boston  an  army  of  zealous  new  re- 
cruits. The  Governor  uniformed  them  at  one  stroke 
with  his  overcoats,  and  had  each  man's  outfit  ready  for 
him  so  that  in  one  day  they  were  marching  from  Bos- 
ton to  the  capital ;  and  in  six  days,  on  Sunday,  he  ^as 
able  to  announce  to  the  government  that  the  whole 
quota  of  men  required  of  Massachusetts  were  already 


334  JOHN  A.    ANDREW. 

either  in  WasMngton  or  in  Fortress  Monroe,   on  their 
way  thither. 

When  news  came  back  of  the  fight  in  Baltimore, 
and  the  murder  of  some  of  his  brave  men,  Andrew 
sent  a  telegram  which  showed  that  if  he  did  not  care 
to  wear  the  uniform  of  a  Massachusetts  Governor,  he 
knew  how  to  assert  the  honor  of  Massachusetts,  and  to 
make  other  States  feel  that  she  had  a  Chief  Magistrate 
in  whose  sight  the  blood  of  every  Massachusetts  man 
was  sacred. 

He  telegraphed  to  the  Mayor  of  Baltimore : 

"  I  pray  you  let  the  bodies  of  our  Massachusetts 
soldiers,  dead  in  Baltimore,  be  laid  out,  preserved  in  ice, 
and  tenderly  sent  forward  by  express  to  me.  All  ex- 
penses will  be  paid  by  the  commonwealth." 

The  tender  and  fatherly  feeling  expressed  in  this 
telegram  is  the  key  note  to  all  Governor  Andrew's  con- 
duct of  the  war.  Though  he  would  not  waste  one 
cent  on  the  trappings  of  rank,  or  his  own  personal  dig- 
nity or  convenience,  he  gave  unlimited  orders  for 
marks  of  tender  and  delicate  devotion  to  even  the  re- 
mains of  the  brave  who  had  fallen  for  their  country. 

In  the  same  manner  he  gave  himself  no  rest,  in  his 
labors  for  the  families  of  the  brave  men  who  were  in 
the  field.  This  interest  was  the  deeper,  the  humbler 
the  walk  in  life  of  its  objects. 

The  British  minister,  Sir  Frederick  Bruce,  once 
called  upon  him  at  the  State  House,  and  found  the 
room  nearly  filled  with  colored  women  who  had  come 
to  hear  news  of  fathers,  brothers  and  sons  enlisted  in 
the  black  regiments  of  Massachusetts.  He  waited  pa- 
tiently while  the  Governor  inquked  into  the  sorrows 


THE  BRITISH  MINISTER  AND  THE  COLORED  WOMEN.    335 

and  grievances,  and  listened  to  the  perplexities  of  these 
poor  anxious  souls,  and  tried  in  his  hopeful  cheery  way 
to  smooth  away  difficulties  and  inspire  hope.  It  was 
not  till  the  humblest  and  poorest  had  had  their  say, 
that  the  turn  of  the  British  Minister  came,  who,  as  he 
shook  the  Governor's  hand,  said  that  the  scene  before 
him  had  given  him  a  new  idea  of  the  paternal  char- 
acter of  a  Republican  Government. 

Of  a  like  nature  is  another  anecdote,  one  of  many 
which  since  the  Governor's  death,  have  risen  like  flow- 
ers upon  his  grave. 

A  poor  woman,  the  wife  of  a  soldier,  came  to  his 
room  to  have  some  business  done  in  relation -to  the 
pension  of  a  poorer  sister.  The  Governor  told  her 
that  her  application  must  be  made  at  another  bureau 
in  another  part  of  the  State  house.  Observing  some- 
thing of  delicacy  and  timidity  in  her  air,  he  asked  her 
where  she  lived  and  finding  it  out  of  Boston,  enquired 
if  she  had  any  friends  or  relations  in  the  city  with 
whom  she  could  rest  during  the  hours  before  the  open- 
ing of  the  office.  Finding  that  she  was  utterly  a  stran- 
ger in  Boston,  and  evidently  in  delicate  health,  the 
Governor  provided  her  a  sofa  in  a  private  nook  and 
told  her  to  rest  herself,  and  offered  her  from  his  own 
frugal  stores  a  glass  of  wine  and  a  cracker  for  refresh- 
ment. The  fatherly  kindness  and  consideration  of  his 
manner  was  more  even,  than  the  favors  he  gave. 

His  sympathy  with  the  soldiers  in  the  field  was  a 
sort  of  personal  identification.  He  put  himself  into 
the  Massachusetts  army  and  could  say  as  Paul  said  of 
the  churches:  "who  is  weak,  and  I  am  not  weak  ?  who 


336 


JOHN   A.    ANDREW. 


is  offended,  and  I  burn  not  ?  "   One  incident  illustrative 
of  this  is  thus  related  by  Edwin  Whipple  in  his  eulogy: 

E-eceiving,  in  the  depth  of  winter,  an  urgent  request 
from  the  War  Office  that  a  regiment,  not  yet  properly 
equipped,  should  be  sent  immediately  to  Washington, 
he  despatched  it  on  the  assurance  that  all  its  wants 
should  be  supplied  on  its  arrival.  Hearing  that  it  had 
been  stopped  on  the  way,  and  that  it  was  undergoing 
cruel  privations,  he  started  instantly  for  the  camp,  de- 
termined at  least  to  share  the  misery  he  might  not  be 
able  to  relieve  ;  and  he  would  not  budge  an  inch  until 
the  regiment  was  sent  on  to  its  destination.  Indeed 
he  would  have  blushed  to  enter  heaven,  carrying  thith- 
er the  thought  that  he  had  regarded  his  own  comfort 
rather  than  the  least  duty  he  owed  to  the  poorest  sol- 
dier-citizen. 

The  proclamations  of  Governors,  Presidents  and 
public  men  have  generally  been  mere  stately  general- 
ities and  formalities.  But  with  the  great  stirring  of  the 
deeper  religious  feelings  of  the  community,  these  papers 
on  the  part  of  our  public  men  have  become  individual 
and  human — animated  by  a  deeply  religious  spirit. 

The  proclamations  of  Governor  Andi'ew  for  the 
usual  State  Thanksgivings  and  fasts,  customary  in  Mas- 
sachusetts were  peculiar  and  unusual  documents,  and 
show  more  than  any  thing  else  how  strongly  the  spirit 
and  traditions  of  his  old  Puritan  ancestry  wrought  in 
him,  and  how  completely  his  mind  was  permeated  with 
the  Hebraistic  imagery  of  the  Old  Testament. 

His  first  thanksgiving  proclamation  after  the  com- 
mencement of  the  war,  is  a  document  worth  preserv- 
ing entu'e. 


HIS   OLD    TESTAMENT    PROCLAMATIONS.  337 

"  By  His  Excellency  John  A.  Andrevt,  Governor .  A  proclama- 
tion for  a  day  of  PubUc  Thanksgiving  and  Praise. 

"The  example  of  the  Fathers,  and  the  dictates  of  pi- 
ety and  gratitude,  summon  the  people  of  Massachu- 
setts, at  this,  the  harvest  season,  crowning  the  year 
with  the  rich  proofs  of  the  Wisdom  and  Love  of  God, 
to  join  in  a  solemn  and  joyful  act  of  united  Praise  and 
Thanksgiving  to  the  Bountiful  Giver  of  eveiy  good 
and  perfect  gift. 

"I  do,  therefore,  with  the  advice  and  consent  of  the 
Council,  appoint  Thursday,  the  twenty-first  day  of  No- 
vember next — the  same  being  the  anniversary  of  that 
day,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  sixteen  hundred  and 
twenty,  on  which  the  Pilgrims  of  Massachusetts,  on 
board  the  May  Flower,  united  themselves  in  a  solemn 
and  written  compact  of  government — to  be  observed 
by  the  people  of  Massachusetts  as  a  day  of  Public 
Thanksgiving  and  Praise.  And  I  invoke  its  observ- 
ance by  all  people  with  devout  and  religious  joy. 

"  Sing  aloud  unto  God,  our  strength ;  make  a  joyful 
noise  unto  the  God  of  Jacob. 

"  Take  a  Psalm  and  bring  hither  the  timbrel,  the  pleas- 
ant harp  with  psaltery. 

"Blow  up  the  trumpet  in  the  new  moon,  in  the  time 
appointed,  on  our  solemn  feast  day. 

"  For  this  was  a  statute  for  Israel,  and  a  law  of  the 
God  of  Jacob.     Psalms  81,  v.  1  to  4. 

"0  bless  our  God,  ye  people,  and  make  the  voice  of 
his  praise  to  be  heard  : 

"  Which  holdeth  our  soul  in  life,  and  suffereth  not  our 
feet  to  be  moved. 


338  JOHN   A.    ANDREW. 

"For  thou,  0  God,  hath  proved  us;  thou  hast  tried 
us,  as  silver  is  tried.     Psalms  66,  v.  8  and  9. 

"  Let  us  rejoice  in  God  and  be  thankful  for  the  fulness 
with  which  he  has  blessed  us  in  our  basket  and  in  our 
store,  giving  large  rewards  to  the  toil  of  the  husband- 
man, so  that  '  our  paths  drop  fatness.' 

"  For  the  many  and  gentle  alleviations  of  the  hard- 
ships which  in  the  present  time  of  public  disorder  have 
afflicted  the  various  pursuits  of  industry. 

"For  the  early  evidence  of  the  reviving  energies  of 
the  business  of  the  people  : 

"For  the  measure  of  success  which  has  attended  the 
enterprise  of  those  who  go  down  to  the  sea  in  ships, 
of  those  who  search  the  depths  of  the  ocean  to  add  to 
the  food  of  man,  and  of  those  whose  busy  skill  and 
handicraft  combine  to  prepare  for  various  use  the  crops 
of  the  earth  and  sea : 

"For  the  advantages  of  sound  learning,  placed  with- 
in the  reach  of  all  children  of  the  people,  and  the  free- 
dom and  alacrity  with  which  these  advantages  are  em- 
braced and  improved : 

"  For  the  opportunities  of  religious  instruction  and 
worship,  universally  enjoyed  by  consciences  untram- 
melled by  any  human  authority  : 

"For  the  redemption  of  the  world  by  Jesus  Christ, 
for  the  means  of  grace  and  the  hope  of  glory : 

"And  with  one  accord  let  us  bless  and  praise  God  for 
the  oneness  of  heart,  mind  and  purpose  in  which  he 
has  united  the  people  of  this  ancient  Commonwealth 
for  the  defence  of  the  rights,  liberties,  and  honor,  of 
our  beloved  country. 


SUMMAKY   OF   ANTI-SLAVERY   LEGISLATION.  339 

"May  we  stand  forever  in  the  same  miud,  remember- 
ing the  devoted  lives  of  our  fathers,  the  precious  in- 
heritance of  freedom  received  at  their  hands,  the 
weight  of  glory  which  awaits  the  faithful,  and  the  in- 
finity of  blessing  which  it  is  our  privilege,  if  we  will, 
to  transmit  to  the  countless  generations  of  the  future. 

"  And  while  our  tears  flow,  in  a  stream  of  cordial 
sympathy,  with  the  daughters  of  our  people,  just  now 
bereft,  by  the  violence  of  the  wicked  and  rebellious,  of 
the  fathers  and  husbands  and  brothers  and  sons,  whose 
heroic  blood  has  made  verily  sacred  the  soil  of  Virginia, 
and  mingling  with  the  waters  of  the  Potomac,  has 
made  the  river  now  and  forever  ours ;  let  our  souls 
arise  to  God  on  the  wings  of  Praise,  in  thanksgiving 
that  He  has  again  granted  to  us  the  privilege  of  living 
unselfishly,  and  of  dying  nobly,  in  a  grand  and  right- 
eous cause : 

"For  the  precious  and  rare  possession  of  so  much  de- 
voted valor  and  heroism : 

"  For  the  sentiment  of  pious  duty  which  distinguished 
our  fathers  in  the  camp  and  in  the  field : 

"  And  for  the  sweet  and  blessed  consolations  which 
accompany  the  memories  of  these  dear  sons  of  Massa- 
chusetts on  to  immortality : 

"And  in  our  praise  let  us  also  be  penitent.  Let  us 
'seek  the  truth  and  ensue  it,'  and  prepare  our  minds 
for  whatever  duty  shall  be  manifested  hereafter. 

"  May  the  controversy  in  which  we  stKnd  be  found 
worthy  in  its  consummation  of  the  heroic  sacrifices  of 
the  people  and  the  precious  blood  of  their  sons,  of  the 
doctrine  and  faith  of  the  fathers,  and  consistent  with 
the  honor  of  God  and  with  justice  to  all  men. 


340  JOHN  A.    ANDREW. 

"And, 

"  '  Let  God  arise,  let  his  enemies  be  scattered  ;  let 
them  also  that  hate  him,  flee  before  him.' 

"  'As  smoke  is  driven  away,  so  drive  those  away.' 
Psalms,  68,  v.  1  and  2. 

"  '  Scatter  them  by  thy  power,  and  bring  them  down, 
0  Lord,  our  shield.'     Psalms,  59,  v.  IL 

Given  at  the  Council  Chamber,  this  thirty-first  day 
of  October,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  one  thousand  eight 
hundred  and  sixty-one,  and  the  eighty-sixth  of  the 
Independence  of  the  United  States  of  America. 

JOHN  A.  ANDREW. 

"  By  His  Excellency  the  Governor,  with  the   advice 
and  consent  of  the  Council. 

Oliver  Warner,  Secretary. 
"God  save  the  Commonwealth  of  Massachusetts." 

The  next  year,  1862,  the  annual  thanksgiving  proc- 
lamation has  the  following  characteristic  close : 

"Rising  to  the  height  of  our  great  occasion,  re-en- 
forced by  courage,  conviction  and  faith,  it  has  been 
the  privilege  of  our  country  to  perceive,  in  the  work- 
ings of  Providence,  the  opening  ways  of  a  sublime 
Duty.  And  to  Him  who  hath  never  deserted  the 
faithful,  unto  Him  'who  gathereth  together  the  out- 
casts of  Israel,  who  healeth  the  broken  in  heart,'  we 
owe  a  new  song  of  thanksgiving.  'He  sheweth  his 
word  unto  Jacob,  his  statutes  and  his  judgments  unto 
Israel.     He  has  not  dealt  so  with  any  nation.' 

"Putting  aside  all  fear  of  man,  which  bringeth  a 
snare,  may  this  people  put  on  the  strength  which  is 
the  divine  promise  and  gift  to  the  faithful  and  obedi- 


HIS   INTEREST    IN    THE    RICHMOND    POOR.  341 

ent ;  '  Let  the  higli  praises  of  God  be  in  their  moiith, 
and  a  two  edged  sword  in  their  hand.'  Not  with 
malice  and  wickedness,  but  with  sincerity  and  truth, 
let  us  keep  this  feast ;  and  while  we  '  eat  the  fat  and 
drink  the  sweet,  forget  not  to  send  a  portion  to  him.  for 
whom  nothing  is  prepared.'  Let  us  remember  on  that 
day  the  claims  of  all  who  are  poor,  or  desolate,  or  op- 
pressed, and  pledge  the  devotion  of  our  lives  to  the 
rescue  of  our  country  from  the  evils  of  rebellion,  op- 
pression and  wrong ;  and  may  we  all  so  order  our 
conduct  hereafter,  that  we  may  neither  be  ashamed  to 
live,  nor  afraid  to  die." 

When  the  war  was  over,  and  the  victory  won,  the 
generous  and  brotherly  spirit  of  Governor  Andrew 
showed  itself  in  the  instant  outflowing  of  charity 
towards  our  misguided  and  suffering  brethren,  and  he 
was  one  of  the  first  and  warmest  to  respond  to  the 
cry  for  aid  to  the  starving  thousands  at  the  South. 
"I  was  for  a  vigorous  prosecution  of  the  war  while 
there  was  a  war,"  he  said,  "but  now  the  war  is  over, 
I  am  for  a  vigorous  prosecution  of  the  peace." 

It  is  not  generally  known  that  the  moment  the  na- 
tional flag  made  Richmond  a  safe  place  to  be  visited 
by  northern  men,  teachers  were  at  once  sent  from 
Boston  to  found  a  series  of  common  schools  for  the 
poor  white  children  of  Richmond.  The  building  for- 
merly employed  as  a  laboratory  for  the  preparing  of 
torpedos  and  other  implements  of  war,  was  converted 
into  a  school  room  for  thcbe  poor  vagrants,  who  had 
suffered  from  cold,  hunger  and  neglect  during  the 
chances  of  the  war.  The  teachers  carried  with  them 
not  only  school  books  for  the  childi'en,  but  gifts  of 


342      .  JOHN    A.    ANDREW. 

clotliing  and  supplies  of  food,  whereby  fhey  carried 
comfort  to  many  a  poor  family.  In  this  most  pecu- 
liarly Christian  work,  Governor  Andrew  sympathized 
deeply.  His  was  a  nature  that,  while  it  could  be  sur- 
passed by  none  in  energetic  resistance  to  wrong,  was 
ever  longing  the  rather  to  express  itself  in  deeds  of 
kindness. 

Governor  Andrew's  farewell  address  to  the  Legisla- 
ture of  Massachusetts  was  a  state  paper  worthy  of  the 
State  and  worthy  of  him.  We  shall  make  a  few  ex- 
tracts : 

"At  the  end  of  five  years  of  executive  administra- 
tion, I  appear  before  a  convention  of  the  two  Houses 
of  her  General  Court,  in  the  execution  of  a  final  duty. 
For  nearly  all  that  period,  the  Commonwealth,  as  a 
loyal  State  of  the  American  Union,  has  been  occupied 
within  her  sphere  of  co-operation,  in  helping  to  main- 
tain, by  arms,  the  power  of  the  nation,  the  liberties 
of  the  people,  and  the  rights  of  human  nature. 

"Having  contributed  to  the  army  and  the  navy — 
including  regulars,  volunteers,  seamen  and  marines, 
men  of  all  arms,  and  ofi&cers  of  all  grades,  and  of  the 
various  terms  of  service — an  aggregate  of  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty-nine  thousand  one  hundred  and  sixty- 
five  men ;  and  having  expended  for  the  war,  out  of 
her  own  treasury,  twenty-seven  million  seven  hundred 
and  five  thousand  one  hundred  and  nine  dollars, — be- 
sides the  expenditures  of  her  cities  and  towns,  she  has 
maintained,  by  the  unfailing  energy  and  economy  of 
her  sons  and  daughters,  her  industry  and  thrift  even 
in  the  waste  of  war.  She  has  paid  promptly,  and  in 
gold^  all  interest  on  her  bonds — including  the  old  and 


fflS   FAREWELL   ADDRESS.  343 

the  new — guarding  her  faith  and  honor  with  every  pub- 
lic creditor,  while  still  fighting  the  public  enemy ;  and 
now,  at  last,  in  retiring  from  her  service,  I  confess  the 
satisfaction  of  having  first  seen  all  of  her  regiments 
and  batteries  (save  two  battalions)  returned  and  mus- 
tered out  of  the  army ;  and  of  leaving  her  treasury 
provided  for,  by  the  fortunate  and  profitable  negotia- 
tion of  all  the  permanent  loan  needed  or  foreseen — 
with  her  financial  credit  maintained  at  home  and 
abroad,  her  public  securities  unsurpassed,  if  even 
equalled,  in  value  in  the  money  market  of  the  world 

by  those  of  any  State  or  of  the  Nation. 

****** 

"But,  perhaps,  before  descending  for  the  last  time 
from  this  venerable  seat,  I  may  be  indulged  in  some 
allusion  to  the  broad  field  of  thought  and  statesman- 
ship, to  which  the  war  itself  has  conducted  us.  As  I 
leave  the  Temple  where,  humbled  by  my  unworthi- 
ness,  I  have  stood  so  long,  like  a  priest  of  Israel 
sprinkling  the  blood  of  the  holy  sacrifice  on  the  altar 
— I  would  fain  contemplate  the  solemn  and  manly 
duties  which  remain  to  us  who  survive  the  slain,  in 
honor  of  their  memory  and  in  obedience  to  God." 

The  Governor  then  goes  on  to  state  his  views  of 
reconstruction,  and  we  will  say  no  state  paper  ever 
more  truly  expressed  the  Christian  idea  of  statesman- 
ship as  applied  to  the  most  profound  problem  of 
modern  times. 

In  conclusion,  it  seems  lo  us  that  Governor  Andrew 
so  fully  lived  in  the  spirit  of  the  old  Christian  Gov- 
ernors of  Massachusetts,  that  the  words  of  Cotton 
Mather,  in  his  mourning  for  Governor  Winthrop,  fully 


344  JOHN   A.    ANDREW. 

apply  to  him:  "We  are  now,"  lie  says,  "to  mourn  for 
a  governor  who  has  been  to  us  as  a  friend  in  his  coun- 
sel for  all  things,  help  for  our  bodies  by  physic,  for 
our  estate  by  law,  and  of  whom  there  was  no  fear  of 
his  becoming  an  enemy,  like  the  friends  of  David ;  a 
governor  who  hath  been  unto  us  as  a  brother ;  not 
usurping  authority  over  the  church ;  often  speaking 
his  advice,  and  often  contradicted,  even  by  young 
men,  and  some  of  low  degree ;  yet  not  replying,  but 
offering  satisfaction  when  any  supposed  offences  have 
arisen ;  a  governor  who  has  been  to  us  as  a  mother, 
parent-like  distributing  his  goods  to  brethren  and 
neighbors  at  his  first  coming,  and  gently  bearing  our 
infirmities  without  taking  notice  of  them." 

It  is  pleasant  to  record  for  the  honor  of  republics, 
that  while  the  disinterestedness  of  Governor  Andrew 
had  left  him  in  honorable  poverty,  the  contributions 
of  Boston  and  Massachusetts  immediately  flowed  in  to 
supply  to  his  family  that  estate  which  their  father's 
patriotism  and  devotion  did  not  allow  him  to  seek  for 
them.  There  must  have  been  thousands  of  grateful 
hearts  in  Massachusetts,  in  homes  of  comparative  indi- 
gence whence  have  come  joyful  contributions  to  that 
testimonial  of  Massachusetts  to  her  beloved  and  faith- 
ful citizen  Governor. 


■^   X 


/ 


344  JOHN    A.    ANDREW. 

apply  to  him:   ""We  are  now,"  lie  says,  "to  mourn  for 
a  governor  who  has  been  to  us  as  a  friend  in  his  coun- 

ibr 

ao  feai'  of 

-  of  David ;  a 

not 

;eu  Si  0" 


a  moc 
T)  and 
our 


of  ■^'oi'^r/'^^^V's, 


oful 
ui, '_  mdi- 

■is  to  ^'  ;  ^ 
^jeiuvuu  and  faiiii- 


CHAPTER    X. 

SCHUYLEE    COLFAX. 

General  William  Colfax,  Washington's  Friend — Mr.  Colfax  his  Grandson — Mr. 
Colfax's  Birth  and  Boyhood — Removes  to  Indiana — Becomes  Deputy  County 
Auditor — Begins  to  Deal  with  Pohtics — Becomes  an  Editor — The  Period  of 
Maximum  Debt — Mr.  Colfax's  First  Year — He  is  Burnt  Out— His  Subsequent 
Success  as  an  Editor — His  Political  Career  as  a  Whig — Joins  the  Republican 
Party — Popularity  in  his  own  District — The  Nebraska  Bill — Mr.  Colfax  goes- 
into  Congress — The  Famous  Contest  for   Speakership — Mr.  Colfax  Saves  his. 

'  Party  from  Defeat — Banks  Chosen  Speaker — Mr.  Colfax's  Great  Speech  on 
the  Bogus  Laws  of  Kansas — The  Ball  and  Chain  for  Free  Speech — Mr  Colfax 
Shows  the  Ball,  and  A.  H.  Stephens  Holds  it  for  him — Mr.  Colfax  Renomina- 
ted Unanimously — His  Remarkable  Success  in  his  own  District — Usefol  Labors, 
in  Post  Office  Committee — Early  for  Lincoln  for  President — Mr.  Colfax  urged 
for  Post  Master  General — His  Usefulness  as  Speaker — The  Qualifications  for 
that  Post — Mr.  Colfax's  Public  Virtnes. 

General  Willloi  Colfax,  the  grandfather  of  Hon.. 
Schuyler  Colfax,  was  a  citizen  of  New  Jersey,  and 
was  the  commanding  officer  of  Gen.  Washington's 
life  guards  throughout  the  Revolutionary  War.  His 
holding  that  very  confidential  and  responsible  post  is 
sufficient  evidence  of  his  steadiness,  sense,  courage  and 
discretion.  It  is  a  further  testimonial  to  the  same  ef- 
fect, that  Gen.  Colfax  latterly  became  one  of  the  most 
intimate  personal  friends  of  the  great  revolutionary 
chieftain.  Gen.  Colfax's  wife  was  Hester  Schuyler,  a 
cousin  of  Gen.  Philip  Schuyler, 

General  Colfax's  son,  Schuyler  Colfax,  the  father  of 

the  Speaker,  was  an  officer  of  one  of  the  New  York 

city  banks,  and  died  four  months  before  his  son  was 

born. 

3«        22 


348  SCHUYLER    COLFAX. 

Schuyler  Colfax  was  born  in  New  York  city,  March 
23,  1823,  and  was  the  only  son  of  his  widowed  moth- 
er. He  was  taught  in  the  common  schools  of  the  city 
— finished  his  education  at  the  high  school  then  stand- 
ing in  Crosby  St.,  and  at  ten  years  had  received  all  the 
school  training  he  ever  had.  He  now  became  a  clerk 
in  a  store,  and  after  three  years  removed  to  Indiana 
with  his  mother  and  her  second  husband,  a  Mr.  Mat- 
thews. They  settled  in  St.  Joseph  County.  Here  the 
youth  for  four  years  again  served  as  clerk  in  the  vil- 
lage of  New  Carlisle.  When  17  years  old  he  was  ap- 
pointed deputy  county  auditor,  and  for  the  better  ful- 
filment of  his  ofiicial  duties,  he  now  removed  to  the 
county  town,  South  Bend,  where  he  has  lived  ever 
since. 

Like  almost  every  western  citizen  of  any  activity 
of  body  and  mind,  young  Colfax  took  practical  hold 
of  political  matters  about  as  soon  as  he  could  vote. 
He  talked  and  thought,  and  began  to  print  his  views 
from  time  to  time  in  the  local  newspaper  of  the  place. 
His  peculiar  faculty  of  dealing  fairly  and  at  the  same 
time  pleasantly,  with  men  of  all  sorts,  his  natural  so- 
briety and  sensibleness  of  opinion,  and  his  power  of 
stating  things  plainly  and  correctly,  made  him  what 
may  be  called  a  natural  newspaper  man.  He  was  em- 
ployed during  several  sessions  to  report  the  proceed- 
ings of  the  State  Senate  for  the  Indianapolis  Journal, 
and  in  this  position  made  many  friends,  and  gained  a 
good  reputation  for  political  information  and  ability  as 
a  writer. 

In  1845,  he  became  proprietor  and  editor  of  the 
"  St.  Joseph  Valley  Register,"   the  local  paper  of  his 


BECOMES   AN    EDITOR.  349 

town,  South  Bend.  This  was  the  beginning  of  his 
independent  career,  and  if  hope  had  been  absent,  the 
prospect  would  have  looked  meagre  enough.  He  was 
a  youth  of  just  over  twenty-one,  and  he  had  two  hun- 
dred and  fifty  subscribers.  But  the  youthful  editor 
had  hope,  and  what  was  far  more  important,  remarka- 
ble tact  and  capacity  for  his  laborious  profession.  By 
good  fortune  and  perseverance,  he  was  able  to  tide 
over  the  first  dangerous  crisis  for  a  poor  man  who  un- 
dertakes a  large  literary  enterprise — the  period  of 
maximum  debt,  so  fatal  to  new  periodicals.  This  is  a 
point  like  the  darkest  hour  just  before  day,  when  the 
newspaper  or  magazine  is  very  likely  steadily  gaining 
in  reputation  and  even  in  circulation,  but  when  the 
circulation  has  not  quite  reached  the  paying  point, 
and  the  paper  bills  have  been  postponed  to  the  latest 
possible  moment,  while  the  constant  outgoes  for  pay- 
ing the  journeymen,  and  for  the  other  weekly  office 
expenses,  have  kept  up  their  monotonous  drain.  With 
Mr.  Colfax  this  period  was  at  the  end  of  the  first  year 
of  his  paper,  when  he  owed  $1,375.  The  concern 
gradually  became  productive,  however.  A  few  years 
afterwards  the  office  was  burned  down,  and  the  unin- 
sured editor  was  left  to  beo:in  his  business  over  a2:ain. 
He  did  so,  and  has  earned  a  very  comfortable  living 
by  it,  though  he  is  by  no  means  a  rich  man. 

Besides  paying  well,  the  "Register,"  as  conducted 
by  Mr.  Colfax,  is  entitled  to  the  much  higher  praise 
of  having  been  a  useful,  interesting  and  a  morally  pure 
paper,  always  on  the  side  of  what  is  good  and  right 
in  morals  and  in  society.  It  has  been,  for  instance, 
constantly  in  favor  of  temperance  reform ;  and  it  has 


350  SCHUYLER    COLFAX. 

always  avoided  the  masses  of  vile  detail  wliicli  so 
many  papers  of  respectable  position  manage  to  dis- 
tribute in  families  under  pretence  that  they  must  give 
-full  news  of  police  reports  and  criminal  trials. 

Mr.  Colfax  was  a  Whig  as  long  as  there  was  a  Whig 
party,  and  at  its  death,  like  all  its  members  of  clear 
heads,  progressive  tendencies,  and  decided  character, 
he  joined  the  Republican  party.  Before  the  rise  of 
this  great  new  organization,  however,  he  had  already 
risen  to  considerable  influence  in  the  Whig  party,  and 
had  held  several  positions  of  political  trust.  In  1848 
he  was  a  delegate  to  the  convention  which  nominated 
Gen.  Taylor,  and  was  one  of  its  secretaries.  In  1849 
he  was  a  member  of  the  convention  which  revised  the 
constitution  of  the  State  of  Indiana,  having  been  cho- 
sen in  a  manner  especially  honorable  to  him  personally, 
as  his  district  was  politically  opposed  to  him.  Mr. 
Colfax,  in  this  convention,  was  considered  a  judicious 
legislator,  a  ready  debater  and  a  fine  speaker.  A  little 
after  this  time  he  declined  a  nomination  to  the  Indiana 
Senate,  for  the  sufficient  reason  that  he  could  not  af- 
ford at  that  time  to  be  absent  from  his  business. 

Mr.  Colfax's  first  nomination  for  Congress  was  in 
1851,  and  he  was  beaten,  though  only  by  200  major- 
ity, in  a  district  strongly  opposed  to  him  in  politics. 
His  competitor  was  that  Dr.  Graham  N.  Fitch  who 
was  afterwards  the  congenial  yokefellow  of  Mr.  Bright 
in  the  U.  S.  Senate,  on  the  side  of  the  South,  during 
Mr.  Buchanan's  presidency.  Mr.  Colfax's  friends  were 
of  opinion,  however,  that  the  fatal  200  against  him 
were  illegal  votes,  imported  by  means  of  a  certain 
railroad  then  constructing  in  those  parts,  and  from 


GOES   INTO    CONGRESS.  351 

among  the  laborers  employed  upon  it.  In  1852  lie 
was  a  delegate  to  the  Whig  National  Convention  that 
nominated  Gen.  Scott,  and  as  at  the  convention  of 
1848,  was  a  secretary.  He  declined  a  second  con- 
gressional nomination,  and  his  district,  which  he  had 
lost  by  only  200,  was  now  lost  by  1,000. 

The  Thirty-Third  Congress,  whose  legal  existence 
covered  the  period  from  Dec.  5,  1853,  to  March  3, 
1855,  Franklin  Pierce  being  President,  passed  the  Ne- 
braska Bill.  Upon  this,  the  North,  driven  at  last  to 
the  wall,  turned  short  about  in  its  career  of  surrender, 
and  set  itself  to  put  a  limit  to  the  spread  of  slavery. 
The  old  established  professional  politicians  of  those 
days  did  not  understand  this  crisis,  and  very  many  of 
them  did  not  know  anything  about  the  change  of 
public  opinion — or  rather  of  public  intention — that 
was  going  on,  until  to  their  immense  surprise  and  dis- 
gust, an  anti-slavery-extension  constituency  that  they 
knew  not  of,  suddenly  voted  them  out  of  their  offices. 
Such  a  bat-eyed  politician  was  Mr.  Colfax's  own  rep- 
resentative in  Congress  at  this  time.  Even  after  hav- 
ing been  elected  as  a  Free  Soil  Democrat,  and  after 
undergoing  a  special  season  of  argument  and  entreaty 
by  his  friends  and  neighbors  during  a  visit  home  while 
the  Nebraska  Bill  was  pending,  the  short-sighted  legis- 
lator went  back  and  voted  for  it.  He  very  quickly 
reaped  his  reward,  however.  Had  he  known  enough  to 
take  the  opportunity  of  doing  right,  he  would  have 
found  out  that  for  once  it  was  the  way  to  temporal  suc- 
cess, for  unquestionably  he  would  have  been  re-elected, 
and  assuredly  Mr.  Colfax  would  have  done  his  best  to 
re-elect  him.     As  it  was,  the  energetic  editor  was  at 


352  SCHUYLER    COLFAX. 

once  selected  by  the  anti-Nebraska  men  of  that  region 
to  take  the  lead  in  punishing  the  delinquent.  He 
was  unanimously  chosen  candidate  for  Congress,  and 
after  the  candid  and  jolly  western  fashion,  the  two 
nominees  went  round  the  district,  yoked  together  for 
combat,  like  those  duellists  who  are  tied  together  by 
their  left  wrists  and  wield  their  knives  with  their  right 
hands.  The  result  was,  Mr.  Colfax's  election  by  2,000 
majority,  the  previous  majority  of  his  competitor  hav- 
ing been  1,000  the  other  way. 

When  the  Thirty-Fourth  Congress  met,   Dec.    3d, 

1855,  there  was  a  majority  opposed  to  the  administra- 
tion, but  this  opposition  was  of  materials  inharmonious 
among  themselves.  The  anti-Nebraska  members, 
properly  so  called,  numbered  about  108,  the  adminis- 
tration men,  or  Democrats,  about  75,  the  third  party, 
or  "Know  Nothing"  men  about  40;  and  there  were 
a  few  who  could  not  be  classified.  Now,  the  anti-Ne- 
braska men  alone  had  twenty  less  than  the  necessary 
majority  (128)  out  of  the  234  members  of  the  House; 
and  if  the  Know  Nothings  and  Democrats  should  effect 
a  complete  union,  they  could  choose  a  Speaker. 
Whether  they  would  do  so  was  the  principal  question 
of  the  famous  contest  for  the  Speakership  which  now 
ensued,  which  lasted  from  Dec,    3,   1855,   to  Feb.  2, 

1856,  two  full  months,  and  which  resulted  in  the  elec- 
tion of  Mr.  Banks — the  first  formal  national  triumph 
of  the  national  anti-slavery  sentiment.  Its  importance 
might  be  overlooked,  but  it  was  great,  and  lay  in  this: 
that  the  Speaker  has  power  to  constitute  the  commit- 
tees of  the  House — who  prepare  and  in  very  great 
measure  decide,  all  its  business — just  as  he  pleases. 


THE    FAMOUS   CONTEST    FOR   SPEAKERSHIP.  353 

Accordingly,  if  he  were  a  pro-slavery  man,  past  expe- 
rience gave  full  guarantee  that  those  committees  would 
be  so  formed  as  to  effectually  silence  the  voice  of  the 
anti-slavery  sentiment  of  the  House,  and  to  bejuggle 
the  whole  of  its  legislation  into  an  apparent  and  de- 
ceitful endorsement  of  the  administration.  To  resist 
this  dangerous  and  humiliating  result,  required,  under 
the  circumstances,  a  good  deal  of  courage,  both  moral 
and  physical,  and  powers  of  endurance  almost  equal 
to  the  extremities  of  a  siege ;  but  the  resolute  pha- 
lanx of  the  anti-slavery  men,  cheered  daily  by  their 
consciences  within,  and  the  earnest  and  increasing  ap- 
plause of  every  friend  of  man  without,  fought  the 
battle  bravely  through. 

During  the  contest,  Mr.  Colfax,  who  was  a  steady 
and  unflinching  soldier  on  the  right  side,  served  his 
cause  at  one  very  critical  moment.  It  was  the  end  of 
the  first  month  of  the  struggle.  There  had  been  sixty 
or  seventy  ballots,  and  for  the  last  thirty  or  forty  of 
them  the  votes  had  been  just  about  the  same ;  for 
Banks,  anti-Nebraska,  103  to  106;  Kichardson,  Dem- 
ocratic, 74  or  75 ;  Fuller,  Know  Nothing,  37  to  41 ; 
and  Pennington,  a  second  anti-Nebraska  candidate,  5 
to  8.  Various  experiments  had  been  tried  to  relieve 
the  dead-lock.  It  had  been  suggested  that  the  lowest 
candidate  should  be  dropped  at  each  vote,  until  one 
of  the  last  two  must  be  chosen ;  that  after  three  bal- 
lots, the  candidate  having  most  votes  should  be  elect- 
ed ;  and  other  plans  were  submitted,  but  all  to  no  ef- 
fect. About  the  end  of  December,  Mr.  Campbell,  of 
Ohio,  elected  as  an  anti-Nebraska  man,  but  of  a  suffi- 
ciently singular  sort,  either  very  unwise  or  very  un- 


354  SCHUYLER    COLFAX. 

sound,  offered  a  resolution  that  Mr.  Orr  of  South 
Carolina,  "be  invited  to  preside  temporarily  until  a 
Speaker  be  elected."  This  extremely  sly  contrivance 
came  within  a  hair-breadth  of  succeeding ;  for  it  look- 
ed like  a  mere  amicable  expedient  to  facilitate  busi- 
ness, while  it  was  in  fact  almost  certain  that  once  in, 
the  subtle  and  energetic  Orr,  aided  by  the  whole 
South,  the  Democrats,  most  of  the  Know  Nothings, 
and  perhaps  some  weak  brethren  of  the  anti-slavery 
opposition,  would  stay  in.  A  motion  to  lay  Camp- 
bell's resolution  on  the  table  failed  by  a  majority  of 
twenty ;  it  looked  as  if  Orr  would  be  really  Speaker 
in  five  minutes.  Mr.  Colfax  now  rose  in  the  very 
nick  of  time,  and  made  a  motion  which  irresistibly 
reminds  us  of  the  device  with  which  Hushai  confound- 
ed the  wisdom  of  Ahithophel.  It  was  an  amendment 
proposing  to  put  the  three  contending  parties  on  a 
fair  equality  during  the  contest,  by  allowing  each  to 
elect  a  temporary  chairman,  and  these  three  to  preside 
alternately  in  the  order  they  might  themselves  agree 
upon.  On  this  motion  debate  arose,;  there  was  a  re- 
cess before  any  vote  was  reached ;  and  the  dangerous 
plan  for  making  Orr  Speaker  was  staved  off.  By  next 
morning,  Campbell's  friends  succeeded  in  inducing 
him  to  withdraw  his  resolution,  and  the  contest  settled 
back  to  its  monotonous  course  of  roll-calls  and  ad- 
journments, until  the  final  adoption  of  a  plurality 
rule  by  the  administration  men,  who,  when  they  did 
it,  thought  it  would  help  them,  and  the  consequent 
election  of  Banks,  at  the  134th  ballot,  February  2d, 
1856,  by  103  to  100  for  Aiken,     The  Know  Nothings 


BALL  AND  CHAIN  FOR  FREE  SPEECH.       355 

nearly  all  went  to  tlie  Democratic  side  when  tlie  real 
pinch  came. 

It  was  during  this  session — June  21, 1856, — that  Mr. 
Colfax  delivered  his  well  known  and  powerful  speech 
on  the  bogus  "Laws"  of  Kansas,  imposed  on  that 
State  by  the  fraud  and  violence  of  the  pro-slavery  ruf- 
fians of  those  days.  This  speech,  a  word-for-word  quo- 
tation of  clause  after  clause  of  this  infamous  code,  ac- 
companied with  a  plain,  sober  and  calmly  toned  expla- 
nation of  the  same,  produced  a  very  great  effect,  and 
was  considered  so  able  a  summary  of  the  case  involved, 
that  during  the  Presidential  campaign  of  that  year,  a 
half  million  of  copies  of  it  were  distributed  among 
the  voters  of  the  United  States.  By  way  of  driving 
quite  home  the  truths  of  the  case,  Mr.  Colfax,  where 
he  quoted  the  clause  which  inflicted  imprisonment  at 
hard  labor  with  hall  and  chain^  upon  any  one  who 
should  ever  sai/  "that  persons  have  not  the  right  to 
hold  slaves  in  this  Territory,"  lifted  from  his  desk  and 
showed  to  the  House  an  iron  ball  of  the  statutory  di- 
mensions (viz.,  6  inches  diameter,  weighing  about  30 
lbs.,  apologizing  for  not  also  exhibiting  the  six-foot  chain 
prescribed  along  with  it,  Alexander  II.  Stephens,  af- 
terwards Vice  President  of  the  Rebels,  who  sat  close 
by,  asked  to  take  this  specimen  of  pro-slavery  jewelry 
for  freemen,  and  having  tested  its  weight,  would  have 
returned  it.  But  Mr.  Colfax  smilingly  asked  him  to 
hold  it  for  him  until  he  was  through  speaking,  and 
while  the  pro-slavery  leader  dandled  the  decoration 
proposed  by  his  friends  for  men  guilty  of  free  speech, 
Mr.  Colfax,  in  a  few  telling  sentences,  showed  that 
Washington  and  Jefferson  and  Webster  and  Clay  had 


356  SCHUYLER    COLFAX. 

said  the  words  which  would  have  harnessed  them,  a 
quaternion  of  convicts,  into  the  chain-gang  of  the  bor- 
der ruffians. 

The  close  of  this  weighty  speech  is  here  quoted, 
not  merely  for  the  noble  tone  of  its  assertion  of  lofty 
principles,  but  also  for  the  sake  of  showing  the  oppor- 
tune manner  in  which,  by  citing  one  of  the  departed 
great  men  of  our  land,  he  at  once  added  to  his  argu- 
ment the  strength  of  a  mighty  name,  did  justice  to  a 
man  much  spoken  against  but  of  many  noble  traits, 
and  also  illustrated  a  striking  peculiarity  of  Mr.  Colfax 
himself — the  warmth,  strength  and  unending  persis- 
tency of  his  friendship.     He  closed  as  follows : 

"As  I  look,  sir,  to  the  smiling  valleys  and  fertile 
plains  of  Kansas,  and  witness  there  the  sorrowful 
scenes  of  civil  war,  in  which,  when  forbearance  at  last 
ceased  to  be  a  virtue,  the  Free  State  men  of  the  Terri- 
tory felt  it  necessary,  deserted  as  they  were  by  their 
Government,  to  defend  their  lives,  their  families,  their 
property,  and  their  hearthstones,  the  language  of  one 
of  the  noblest  statesmen  of  the  age,  uttered  six  years 
ago  at  the  other  end  of  this  Capitol,  rises  before  my 
mind.  I  allude  to  the  great  statesman  of  Kentucky, 
Henry  Clay.  And  while  the  party  which,  while  he 
lived,  lit  the  torch  of  slander  at  every  avenue  of  his 
private  life,  and  libelled  him  before  the  American  peo- 
ple by  every  epithet  that  renders  man  infamous,  as  a 
gambler,  debauchee,  traitor,  and  enemy  of  his  country, 
are  now  engaged  in  shedding  fictitious  tears  over  his 
grave,  and  appealing  to  his  old  supporters  to  aid  by 
their  votes  in  shielding  them  from  the  indignation  of 
an  uprisen  people,  I  ask  them  to  read  this  language 


HENRY    CLAY   AGAINST    SLAVERY.  357 

of  his,  wliicli  comes  to  us  as  from  his  tomb  to-day.  With 
the  change  of  but  a  single  geographical  word  in  the 
place  of  "  Mexico,"  how  prophetically  does  it  apply  to 
the  very  scenes  and  issues  of  this  year !  And  who  can 
doubt  with  what  party  he  would  stand  in  the  coming 
campaign,  if  he  were  restored  to  us  from  the  damps 
of  the  grave,  when  they  read  the  following,  which  fell 
from  his  lips  in  1850,  and  with  which,  thanking  the 
House  for  its  attention,  I  conclude  my  remarks. 

"But  if,  unhappily,  we  should  be  involved  in  war,  in 
civil  war,  between  the  two  parties  of  this  Confeder- 
acy, in  which  the  effort  upon  the  one  side  should  be 
to  restrain  the  introduction  of  slavery  into  the  new 
Territories,  and  upon  the  other  side  to  force  its  intro- 
duction there,  what  a  spectacle  should  we  present  to 
the  astonishment  of  mankind,  in  an  effort  not  to  prop- 
agate rights,  but — I  must  say  it,  though  I  trust  it  will 
be  understood  to  be  said  with  no  design  to  excite  feel- 
ing— a  war  to  propagate  wrongs  in  the  Territories  thus 
acquired  from  Mexico  !  It  would  be  a  war  in  which 
we  should  have  no  sympathies,  no  good  wishes — in 
which  all  mankind  would  be  against  us ;  for,  from  the 
commencement  of  the  Revolution  down  to  the  present 
time,  we  have  constantly  reproached  our  British  an- 
cestors for  the  introduction  of  slavery  into  this  coun- 

try.'" 

Mr.  Colfax's  constituents,  extremely  satisfied  with  his 
course  and  abilities,  renominated  him  by  acclamation 
while  he  was  in  Washington  this  year,  and  he  was 
re-elected  after  the  usual  joint  canvass,  although  the 
presidential  election  of  that  fall  went  against  his  party. 
That  such  would  be  the  result,  Mr.  Colfax  had  confi- 


358  SCHUYLER    COLFAX. 

dently  predicted,  as  a  consequence  of  the  third-party 
nomination  of  Mr.  Fillmore.  But  he  worked  with  none 
the  less  zeal  for  his  principles  and  his  party.  He  had 
breadth  and  soundness  and  clearness  of  view  enough  to 
sight  along  the  rising  plane  of  the  successive  anti-sla- 
very votes  of  1844,  1848,  1852,  and  1856,  and  to  see 
that  the  Party  of  Freedom  and  Right  was  the  Party 
of  the  Future ;  and  while  doubtless  he  would  have 
been  just  as  steadfast  in  doing  right  if  he  had  no  hope 
of  a  right-doing  government,  yet  the  very  best  of  men 
works  with  a  more  cheery  strength  when,  to  use  the 
words  of  the  story,  he  can  "see  the  chips  fly."  It 
was  with  sentiments  of  lofty  resolution  that  he  wrote, 
some  months  before  the  Republican  nomination  was 
made,  and  just  after  that  of  Mr.  Fillmore ;  "  Whether 
the  Republican  ticket  shall  be  successful  or  defeated 
this  year,  the  duty  to  support  it,  to  proclaim  and  de- 
fend its  principles,  to  arm  the  conscience  of  the  nation, 
is  none  the  less  incumbent.  The  Republican  move- 
ment is  based  on  Justice  and  Right,  consecrated  to 
Freedom,  commended  by  the  teachings  of  our  Revo- 
lutionary Fathers,  and  demanded  by  the  extraordinary 
events  of  our  recent  history,  and  though  its  triumphs 
may  be  delayed,  nothing  is  more  certain." 

In  1858  Mr.  Colfax  was  again  nominated  by  accla- 
mation, and  re-elected  by  a  triumphant  majority,  and 
so  he  has  been  in  every  election  since,  carrying  his  dis- 
trict against  untiring  and  desperate  and  enormous  ef- 
forts directed  against  him  specially  as  a  representative 
man,  not  merely  by  his  local  opponents,  but  by  the 
whole  forces  of  every  kind  which  the  party  op- 
posed to  his  could   concentrate  within   his   district. 


MR.    COLFAX    EARLY   FOR   LINCOLX.  359 

Such  a  series  of  political  successes  shows  not  only  the 
power  of  the  public  speaker,  and  the  discretion  of  the 
politician,  but  shows  also  a  hearty  and  vigorous  unity 
of  noble  thoughts  between  the  constituency  and  the 
representative,  and  also  a  magnetic  personal  attractive- 
ness which  holds  fast  forever  any  friend  once  made. 
Mr.  Colfax  hath  friends,  because  he  hath  showed  him- 
self friendly. 

During  the  36th  Congress,  (December,  1850,  to 
March,  1861,)  ]\lt.  Colfax  was  chairman  of  the  Com- 
mittee on  Post  Offices  and  Post  Roads,  and  did  much 
and  useful  work  in  keeping  alive  and  healthy  the  some- 
what unwieldy  machinery  of  that  important  institution. 
He  was  in  particular,  successful  in  promoting  the  ex- 
tension of  mail  facilities  among  the  new  mining  com- 
munities in  the  Rocky  Mountain  gold  fields,  and  in 
procuring  the  passage  of  the  very  important  bills  for 
the  Daily  Overland  Mail,  and  for  the  Overland  Telegraph 
to  San  Francisco,  by  way  of  Pike's  Peak  and  Utah. 

It  was  a  matter  of  course  that  Mr.  Colfax  should  go 
with  all  his  heart  into  the  great  struggle  of  1860.  He 
felt  and  understood  with  unusual  earnestness  and  clear- 
ness the  importance  of  the  principles  involved,  and  the 
hazards  of  the  political  campaign.  Into  a  paragraph  or 
two  written  some  time  before  the  Chicago  nomination, 
he  condensed  a  whole  code  of  political  wisdom,  and 
can  now  be  seen  to  have  pointed  out  Abraham  Lin- 
coln as  the  best  candidate,  by  describing  the  political 
y  availability  and  ethical  soundness  of  the  position  Mr. 
Lincoln  then  occupied.     He  wrote  : 

"  We  differ  somewhat  from  those  ardent  cotempora- 
ries  who  demand  the  nomination  of  their  favorite  rep- 


360  SCHUYLER    COLFAX. 

resentative  man,  whether  popular  or  unpopular,  and 
who  insist  that  this  must  be  done,  even  if  we  are  de- 
feated. We  do  agree  with  them  in  declaring  that  we 
shall  go  for  no  man  who  does  not  prefer  free  labor  and 
its  extension,  to  slave  labor  and  its  extension, — who 
though  mindful  of  the  impartiality  which  should  char- 
acterize the  Executive  of  the  whole  Union,  will  not  fail 
to  rebuke  all  new  plots  for  making  the  government  the 
propagandist  of  slavery,  and  compel  promptly  and  ef- 
ficiently the  suppression  of  that  horrible  slave-trade 
which  the  whole  civilized  world  has  banned  as  infa- 
mous, piratical  and  accursed.  But  in  a  Republican 
National  Convention,  if  any  man  could  be  found.  North, 
South,  East  or  West,  whose  integrity,  whose  life,  and 
whose  avowals  rendered  him  unquestionably  safe  on 
these  questions,  and  yet  who  could  yet  poll  one,  two 
or  three  hundred  thousand  votes  more  than  any  one 
else,  we  believe  it  would  be  both  wisdom  and  duty, 
patriotism  and  policy,  to  nominate  him  by  acclamation 
and  thus  render  the  contest  an  assured  success  from 
its  very  opening.  We  hope  to  see  1866  realize  the 
famed  motto  of  Augustine— "In  essentials  unity,  in 
non-essentials  liberty,  in  all  things  charity." 

That  is  very  broad  and  sound  sense.  It  was  in  ex- 
act accordance  with  this  doctrine  and  with  these  inti- 
mations as  to  who  was  the  right  man,  that  Mr.  Lin- 
coln was  nominated,  according  to  the  desire  of  Mr. 
Colfax's  heart ;  and  in  the  coming  campaign  in  his  own 
very  important  state  of  Indiana,  he  did  most  valuable 
service  in  assuring  the  victory. 

Upon  Mr.  Lincoln's  election,  a  very  powerful  influ- 
ence,  made  up    of  public  sentiment,   the    efforts  of 


THE    QUALIFICATIONS   FOR    SPEAKER.  361 

newspapers,  the  urgent  recommendations  of  gover- 
nors and  legislatures,  and  in  particular  of  the  Repub- 
lican presidential  electors,  members  of  legislature, 
congressmen,  and  whole  body  of  voters  of  Indiana, 
united  to  press  upon  the  new  President  the  appoint- 
ment of  Mr.  Colfax  to  the  office  of  Post  Master  Gen- 
eral. Mr.  Lincoln  however  had  resolved  to  make  Hon. 
C.  B.  Smith,  of  Indiana,  Secretary  of  the  Interior, 
and  could  give  no  other  Cabinet  place  to  that  State. 
But  as  long  as  he  lived,  he  loved  and  respected  and 
trusted  Mr.  Colfax ;  and  it  is  on  record  that  "he  rarely 
took  any  steps  affecting  the  interests  of  the  nation 
without  making  his  intentions  known  to  Mr.  Colfax,  in 
whose  judgment  he  placed  the  utmost  confidence." 

Continuing  in  Congress,  Mr.  Colfax  served  with 
efficient  and  patriotic  fervor  in  his  place,  and  in  De- 
cember, 1863,  was  chosen,  and  has  since  remained 
speaker.  In  this  extremely  responsible,  important  and 
laborious  place,  his  official  career  has  been  openly  vis- 
ible to  all  men,  while  only  those  among  whom  he  pre- 
sides can  competently  appreciate  the  rare  personal 
and  acquired  qualifications  which  he  has  so  ably  exer- 
cised— the  even  good  temper,  the  exhaustless  patience, 
the  calm  prompt  presence  of  mind,  the  immense  range 
of  honest  questions  and  sly  quirks  of  parliamentary 
law  which  he  must  have  at  his  tongue's  end ;  even 
the  vigorous  health  and  enduring  physical  frame  which 
enable  him  to  sit  through  session  after  session,  day  af- 
ter day,  without  losing  his  readiness  or  decisiveness  of 
thought  and  action. 

He  has,  however,  maintained  and  even  increased  his 
reputation  as  a  wise  and  just  legislator,  a  most  useful 


362  SCHUYLER   COLFAX. 

public  servant,  a  shrewd  and  kindly  chairman,  and 
a  skillful  parliamentarian.  His  duties  have  not  been 
in  their  nature  so  brilliant  as  the  deeds  of  our  great 
commanders  by  land  or  by  sea ;  nor  so  prominent  even 
as  the  labors  of  some  civilian  officials ;  but  they  have 
been  such  as  to  require  the  greatest  and  most  solid 
and  useful  of  the  civic  virtues,  courage,  integrity, 
forethought,  justice,  and  steady  inexhaustible  industry. 


Enoi 


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VS^djuXAAA.   ^Aa  .  ^^CXa/X 


vrw 


CHAPTER    XL 

EDWIN    M.    STANTON. 

Rebel  Advantages  at  Opening  of  War-They  knew  all  about  the  Army  Officers 
—Early  Contrast  of  Rebel  Enthusiasm  and  Union  Indifference— Importance 
of  Mr.  Stanton's  Post— His  Birth  and  Ancestry— His  Education  and  Law- 
Studies— County  Attorney— State  Reporter— Defends  Mr.  McNulty— Removes 
to  Pittsburg— His  Line  of  Business— The  Wheeling  Case— He  Removes  to 
Washingto^n-His  Qualifications  as  a  Lawyer— He  Enters  Buchanan's  Cabinet 
—His  Unexpected  Patriotism— His  Own  Account  of  the  Cabinet  at  News  of 
Anderson's  Move  to  Sumter— The  Lion  before  the  Old  Red  Dragon— Appoint- 
ed Secretary  of  War—"  Bricks  in  his  Pockets  "—Stanton's  Habitual  Reserve— 
His  Wrath—  "  Tlie  Angel  Gabriel  as  Paymaster  "  -Anecdotes  of  Lincoln's 
Confidence  in  Stanton— Lincoln's  Affection  for  him— The  Burdens  of  his  Office 
—His  Kindness  of  Heart  within  a  Rough  Outside— The  Country  his  Debtor. 

Mr.  Greeley,  in  his  History  of  the  American  Con- 
flict, gives  a  survey  of  the  advantages  possessed  by 
the  rebels  at  the  commencement  of  the  war,  in  the 
martial  character  of  their  leaders.  Jefferson  Davis 
was  a  regularly  educated  graduate  of  West  Point,  who 
had  been  five  years  at  the  head  of  the  War  Department 
of  the  United  States,  and  while  in  that  situation  had 
matured  his  future  plans.  He  and  his  successor,  Floyd, 
up  to  the  year  1861,  had  arranged  the  United.  States 
military  service  to  suit  themselves,  and  left  it  in  pre- 
cisely the  best  condition  for  their  designs.  "They 
knew  every  officer  in  the  United  States  service,  knew 
the  military  value  of  each,  whom  to  call  away  and  or- 
ganize to  lead  their  own  forces,  and  who,  even  if  loy- 
al, would  serve  their  purposes  better  being  left  in  our 

armies  than  taken  into  theirs." 
363        23 


364  EDWIN    M.    STANTON. 

"On  the  other  hand,  President  Lincoln,  without 
military  education  or  experience,  found  himself  sud- 
denly plunged  into  a  gigantic  and  to  him  unexpected 
war,  with  no  single  member  of  his  cabinet  even  pre- 
tending to  military  genius  or  experience,  and  with  the 
offices  of  his  army  filled  to  his  hand  by  the  chiefs  of 
the  rebellion.  Whereas  the  whole  rebel  officers  were 
enthusiasts  who  had  forsaken  all  old  connections  to 
join  the  new  army,  the  officers  remaining  were  some 
of  them  old  and  feeble,  like  Scott,  and  others  of  that 
moderate  kind  of  nature  which  inclines  to  remain  sta- 
tionary with  the  old  institutions,  rather  than  to  make 
a  fiery  forward  movement.  Some  two  hundred  of  the 
very  bravest  and  most  skilful  of  our  army  officers  went 
over  to  the  new  cause,  to  which  they  carried  all  the 
enthusiasm  of  youth  and  hope.  Lincoln,  in  fact,  was 
in  the  condition  of  a  man  who  should  be  put  to  a  na- 
val race  in  an  old  ship  from  which  his  competitors  had 
taken  their  pick  of  all  the  best  sails,  spars  and  hands. 

"It  is  notorious  that  during  the  first  year  or  two 
of  the  war,  while  with  every  Confederate  officer  the 
rebellion  was  an  enthusiasm  and  a  religion,  for  which 
he  was  willing  at  any  moment  to  die,  there  were  on 
the  Union  side  many  officers,  and  those  of  quite  high 
rank,  who  seemed  to  take  matters  with  extreme  cool- 
ness, and  to  have  no  very  particular  enthusiasm  for 
fighting  at  all.  These  officers  seemed  to  consider  se- 
cession as  a  great  and  unlucky  mistake — a  mistake, 
too,  for  which  they  seemed  to  think  the  intemperate 
zeal  of  the  Black  Republicans  was  particularly  in  fault, 
and  their  great  object  seemed  to  be  to  conduct  the 
war  with  as  little  fighting  as  possible,  using  most  con- 


HIS   BIRTH   AND   ANCESTRY.  365 

ciliatory  language,  and  always  being  sure  to  return 
fugitive  slaves  whenever  they  could  get  a  good  oppor- 
tunity, thus  apparently  expecting  in  some  favorable 
hour  to  terminate  hostilities  with  another  of  those 
grand  compromises  which  had  been  tried  with  such 
signal  success  in  years  past." 

The  advancement  of  Stanton  to  the  post  of  Secre- 
tary of  War,  was  a  movement  made  after  it  became 
somewhat  more  a  settled  point  than  at  first  appeared, 
that  war  should  mean  war. 

His  position  during  the  whole  war  was,  next  to  that 
of  the  President,  the  most  important,  responsible  and 
influential  civil  post  in  the  United  States,  and  his  ser- 
vices as  an  organizer,  an  administrative  and  executive 
officer,  and  as  a  fearless,  energetic,  resolute,  powerful, 
and  patriotic  citizen,  were  perhaps  as  nearly  indispen- 
sable to  the  success  of  the  nation  in  the  war  as  those 
of  any  other  one  man.  Yet  the  recorded  materials 
for  preparing  an  account  of  him  are  excessively  scan- 
ty ;  far  more  so  than  for  any  of  his  companions  in  the 
chief  offices  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  cabinet.  This  fact  is  in 
a  certain  sense  a  very  creditable  one  to  him ;  since  it 
is  the  result  of  his  life-long  practice  not  to  talk  about 
himself,  and  not  to  talk  about  his  work,  but  only  to 
do  it. 

Edwin  M.  Stanton  was  born  at  Steuben ville,  in  Ohio, 
in  the  year  1815.  His  ancestors  were  of  the  Quaker 
persuasion,  as  were  those  of  Mr.  Lincoln  and  Attorney 
General  Bates.  His  parents  removed  to  Ohio  fi'om 
Culpepper  county,  in  the  mountain  region  of  Virginia. 
Stanton  received  the  usual  school  training  of  a  country 
boy,  became  a  student  of  Kenyon  College,  in  1833,  but 


366  EDTVTN   M.    STANTON. 

only  remained  a  year  and  left.  This  was  the  end  of 
his  scholastic  education.  It  is  easy,  to  those  who 
know  the  decisive,  impetuous,  self-reliant  nature  of 
the  man,  and  who  remember  the  rough,  plain,  inde- 
pendent atmosphere  of  the  backwoods  country  where 
he  grew  up,  to  imagine  how  easily  any  supposed  in- 
dignity from  his  instructors  would  drive  him  out  of 
their  precincts,  or  how  readily  he  would  give  up  the 
idea  of  further  studies  as  unnecessary,  if  his  supply 
of  money  failed.  However  this  was,  he  took  up  an 
employment  which  allowed  him  to  continue  some  kind 
of  mental  training,  for  he  became  a  bookseller's  clerk 
at  Columbus.  He  also  studied  law,  and  in  1836  was 
admitted  to  the  bar.  He  first  opened  an  office  at  Ca- 
diz, Harrison  county,  Ohio,  and  his  robust  force  and 
direct  sense  quickly  gave  him  the  best  of  whatever 
practice  the  country  aiforded.  He  became  the  county 
prosecuting  attorney  in  about  a  year  ;  in  another  he 
had  removed  to  the  larger  business  center  of  his  na- 
tive place,  Steubenville.  His  practice  rapidly  increas- 
ed, and  during  three  years  from  1839  he  was  Reporter 
of  the  Ohio  Supreme  Court  decisions.  During  his 
career  at  Steubenville,  he  was  the  counsel  of  Caleb  J. 
McNulty,  clerk  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  on 
his  trial  for  embezzling  public  money,  and  cleared 
him.  This  case  made  a  good  deal  of  noise  in  its  day. 
In  1848,  his  business  still  increasing,  Mr.  Stanton  re- 
moved again,  this  time  to  Pittsburg,  where  he  remained 
until  1857,  becoming  without  question  the  first  lawyer 
at  that  bar,  and  beginning  to  be  employed  in  many  of 
that  important  and  vigorously  contested  class  of  cases 
which  are  carried  up  to  the  United  States  Supreme 


HE   REMOVES    TO    WASHINGTON.  367 

Court  at  Washington.  One  of  these,  the  Wheeling 
Bridge  case,  is  perhaps  that  in  which  Mr.  Stanton 
gained  his  greatest  reputation  as  a  lawyer.  It  is  a 
curious  illustration  of  his  carelessness  about  his  repu- 
tation, that  not  long  ago,  when  an  intimate  personal 
friend  of  Mr.  Stanton  wanted  a  copy  of  his  argument 
in  this  case  to  use  in  a  biographical  sketch,  the  Secre- 
tary was  unable  to  furnish  it. 

In  1857  he  removed  once  more,  to  Washington, 
still  following  his  business.  This  now  began  to  con- 
sist largely  of  heavy  patent  cases,  a  peculiar  and  diffi- 
cult but  very  gainful  department  of  legal  practice.  It 
is  observable  that  the  class  of  cases  in  which  Mr. 
Stanton  has  been  prominent,  are  those  in  which  the 
executive  mental  faculties  have  most  to  do  with  the 
subject-matter — patent  cases,  land  cases,  vigorous  con- 
troversies between  great  corporations  about  travelled 
routes  or  conflicting  rights.  Such  cases  arise  among 
executive  men,  and  ]\Ii\  Stanton's  immense  endowment 
of  executive  energy  qualified  him  to  succeed  easily  in 
dealing  with  them. 

Mr.  Stanton  was  naturally  a  Democrat ;  the  vigor- 
ous traits  of  his  character  harmonizing  spontaneously 
with  the  rough,  aggressive  energy  of  the  Jacksonians. 
Probably  his  politics  may  have  had  some  influence  in 
causing  Attorney-General  Black  to  employ  him,  in 
1858,  to  go  to  California  and  argue  for  the  United  States 
some  very  important  land  claim  cases  there.  At  any 
rate,  if  he  had  not  been  a  Democrat,  and  a  thorough- 
going one,  he  would  not  have  been  selected  by  Mr. 
Buchanan  in  December,  1860,  to  succeed  ^Ir.  Black  as 


368  EDWIN   M.    STANTON. 

Attorney- General,  when  on  Mr.  Cass'  resignation  Mr. 
Black  became  Secretary  of  State. 

The  gang  of  treasonable  schemers  who  were  in  those 
days  using  their  high  positions  to  bind  the  country 
hand  and  foot,  as  securely  as  they  could,  in  prepara- 
tion for  secession,  undoubtedly  had  reckoned  that  in 
the  new  Attorney- General,  if  they  did  not  find  an 
ally,  they  would  not  encounter  an  obstacle.  But  his 
patriotism  was  of  a  very  different  kind  from  that  of 
too  many  of  his  party.  When  the  question  before 
him,  instead  of  being  one  of  high  or  low  tariff,  or  of  one 
or  another  sort  of  currency,  became  a  question  wheth- 
er he  should  go  with  his  party  in  permitting  his  coun- 
try to  be  ruined,  or  should  join  with  all  true  patriots 
irrespective  of  party  considerations,  to  preserve  his 
country,  he  did  not  hesitate  at  all.  He  neither  made 
allowances  for  the  disreputable  fright  of  old  Mr.  Bu- 
chanan, nor  the  far  more  disreputable  schemes  of  the 
traitors  who  were  bullying  the  feeble  and  helpless  Old 
Public  Functionary ;  but  stood  firmly  amongst  them 
all,  a  fearless  and  determined  defender  of  the  rights 
of  the  national  government. 

Mr.  Stanton  once  gave  a  curious  and  striking  sketch 
of  the  manners  of  Mr.  Buchanan's  cabinet  in  those 
days.  While  speaking  of  the  results  of  Anderson's 
move  to  Sumter,  he  remarked: 

"This  little  incident  was  the  crisis  of  our  history — 
the  pivot  upon  which  everything  turned.  Had  he 
remained  in  Fort  Moultrie,  a  very  diiferent  combina- 
tion of  circumstances  would  have  arisen.  The  attack 
on  Sumter,  commenced  by  the  South,  united  the 
North,  and  made  the  success  of  the  Confederacy  im- 


STANTON   IN   BUCHANAN's   CABINET.  369 

possible.  I  shall  never  forget  our  coming  together  by 
special  summons  that  night.  Buchanan  sat  in  his  arm 
chair  in  a  corner  of  the  room,  white  as  a  sheet,  with 
the  stump  of  a  cigar  in  his  mouth.  The  dispatches 
were  laid  before  us ;  and  so  much  violence  ensued 
that  he  had  to  turn  us  all  out  of  doors." 

What  sort  of  a  scene,  and  what  sort  of  language 
and  goings  on  are  covered  under  that  phrase  of  ]\Ir. 
Stanton's,  those  who  are  familiar  with  the  manners  of 
the  old  Red  Dragon  of  slavery,  under  moments  of  ex- 
citement, may  imagine.  Oaths  and  curses,  threats  of 
cutting  out  hearts  and  tearing  out  bowels,  were  usual 
amenities,  forms  of  argumentation  and  statement  quite 
familiar,  on  such  occasions.  Mr.  Stanton,  as  any  one 
may  see  by  a  glance  at  his  head,  is  one  of  those  men 
built  on  the  lion  pattern,  a  man  who  never  knew  what 
fear  was — a  man,  also,  awful  and  tremendous  in  pow- 
ers of  wrath  and  combativeness,  and  we  may  be  sure 
at  this  moment  the  lion  stood  at  bay,  and  that  his  roar 
in  answer  to  the  dragon's  hiss,  was  something  to  shake 
the  cabinet  and  frighten  poor  Mr.  Buchanan  quite  out 
of  his  proprieties.  We  may  be  sure  the  traitors  did 
not  go  without  a  full  piece  of  Stanton's  mind,  stormed 
after  them  with  shot  and  shell,  worthy  a  future  Secre- 
tary of  the  War  Department. 

Mr.  Stanton's  appointment  as  Secretary  of  War  was 
January  20,  1862  ;  his  predecessor,  Mr.  Cameron,  hav- 
ing resigned  a  week  before.  This  appointment  was 
probably  in  a  great  measure  due  to  the  fresh  recollec- 
tion of  the  fearless  vigor  with  which  ^Ir.  Stanton,  along 
with  Messrs.  Dix  and  Holt,  had  asserted  the  rights  of 
the  nation  under  Buchanan.     Mr.  Lincoln,  in  making 


370  EDWIN  M.    STANTON. 

his  selection,  had  the  double  good  fortune  of  appoint- 
ing a  man  of  first-class  merit  for  the  position,  and  one 
whose  "section"  was  in  the  right  part  of  the  country. 
It  is  on  record  that  "in  answering  some  questions  on 
the  subject,  he  observed  that  his  first  wish  had  been 
to  choose  a  man  from  a  border  state,  but  that  he  knew 
New  England  would  object;  that  on  the  other  hand 
he  would  have  also  been  glad  to  choose  a  New  Eng- 
lander,  but  he  knew  the  Border  States  would  object. 
So  on  the  whole  he  concluded  to  select  from  some  inter- 
vening territory,  'and  to  tell  you  the  truth,  gentlemen,' 
he  added,  'I  don't  believe  Stanton  knows  where  he  be- 
longs himself!'  Some  of  the  company  now  said  some- 
thing about  Mr.  Stanton's  impulsiveness,  to  which  Mr. 
Lincoln  replied  with  one  of  those  queer  stories  with 
which  he  used  to  answer  friends  and  enemies  alike ; 
'  Well,'  said  he,  '  we  may  have  to  treat  him  as  they  are 
sometimes  obliged  to  treat  a  Methodist  minister  I  know 
of  out  West.  He  gets  wrought  up  so  high  in  his  prayers 
and  exhortations  that  they  are  obhged  to  put  bricks  in 
his  pockets  to  keep  him  down.  We  may  be  obliged 
to  serve  Stanton  the  same  way,  but  I  guess  we'll  let 
him  jump  a  while  first !' " 

The  existence  of  the  country  was  bound  up  in  the 
war,  and  it  was  a  matter  of  course  that  the  War  De- 
partment should  attract  the  greatest  part  of  Mr.  Lin- 
coln's solicitude  and  attention,  and  that  he  should  be 
more  frequently  and  confidentially  in  intercourse  with 
its  Secretary,  than  with  the  other  Departments  of  the 
Government.  Mr.  Lincoln  and  Mr.  Stanton  had  never 
met,  it  is  said,  until  when  the  Secretary  received  his 
commission  from  the  President ;  nor  had  Mr.  Stanton 


HIS    HABITUAL   RESERVE.  371 

any  knowledge  of  the  intention  to  appoint  him  until 
the  day  before  the  nomination. 

Mr.    Stanton's  Secretaryship  is  a  noble  record  of 
vast  energy,  untiring  labor,  thorough  patriotism,  and 
fervent  and  unfailing  courage.     'Mr.  Lincoln,  a  shrewd 
and  wise   judge  of  men,   knew  him  familiarly,   and 
loved  and  valued  him  more  and  more  the  longer  and 
closer  was  their  intercourse.     Indeed,  Mr.    Stanton  is 
probably  a  man  closely  shut  up  and  inexpressive  of 
his  good  and  loveable  traits  and  sentiments,  beyond 
almost  any  one  living ;  and  it  must  have  required  the 
whole  tremendous  pressure  and  heat  of  the  war,   to 
soften  his  iron  crust  sufficiently  to  let  even  the  keen 
eyed  President  find  out  how  human  and  noble  a  heart 
was  silently  beating  inside.     The  most  interesting  of 
the  scanty  anecdotes  which  are  in  existence  about  the 
Secretary  are  such  as  show  the  unlimited  trust  which 
Mr.  Lincoln  came  to  bestow  upon  him,  or  the  rough 
and  vigorous  utterances  by  which  he  customaiily  re- 
vealed when  he  revealed  at  all,  anything  in  the  nature 
of  feelings  on  his  official  duties  or  in  reference  to  the 
war.     Like  many  other  men  of  real  goodness  hidden 
beneath  a  rugged  outside,  Mr.  Stanton's  most  uttera- 
ble  sentiment  was  wrath,  and  he  often,  as  it  were,  shot 
out  a  sentiment  of  goodness  inside  of  a  bullet  of  anger, 
as  a  gruff  benefactor  might  fling  a  gift  at  his  intended 
beneficiary.     Such  was  the  "jumping  "  which  Mr.  Lin- 
coln proposed  to  allow,  before  keeping  down  his  ener- 
getic Secretary  with  bricks  in  his  pockets.     Such  was 
the  strong  figure  in  which  one  day  he  conveyed  to  a 
brother  Secretary  his  views  on  the  fitness  of  appointees. 
Mr.  Usher,  when  Secretary  of  the  Interior,  once  asked 


372  EDWIN   M.    STANTON. 

Mr.  Stanton  to  appoint  a  "  young  friend,"  paymaster  in 
the  army.  "  How  old  is  he?  "  asked  Stanton,  in  his 
curt  manner.  "  About  twenty-one,  I  believe,"  said 
Mr.  Usher;  "he  is  of  good  family  and  of  excellent 
character,"  "Usher,"  exclaimed  Mr.  Stanton,  in  per- 
emptory reply,  "  I  would  not  appoint  the  Angel  Ga- 
briel a  paymaster  if  he  was  only  twenty-one  !  " 

There  was  just  as  much  unceremoniousness,  and 
even  very  much  more  peremptory  force  and  earnestness 
in  the  vigorous  rebuke  which  Mr,  Stanton  adminis- 
tered to  Mr.  Lincoln  on  the  night  of  March  30,  1865, 
for  the  unseasonable  favors  which  he  was  inclined  to 
offer  to  the  rebels,  to  the  detriment  of  justice  and  of 
the  paramount  rights  of  the  nation.  On  this  occasion, 
while  the  last  bills  of  the  session  were  under  examina- 
tion for  signing,  and  while  the  President  and  all  with 
him  were  enjoying  the  expectation  of  to-morrow's  in- 
auguratiou,  a  dispatch  came  in  from  Grant,  which 
stated  his  confidence  that  a  few  days  must  now  end 
the  business  with  Lee  and  Richmond,  and  spoke  of  an 
application  made  by  Lee  for  an  interview  to  negotiate 
about  peace,  Mr.  Lincoln  intimated  pretty  clearly  an 
intention  to  permit  extremely  favorable  terms,  and  to 
let  his  General-in-Chief  negotiate  them ;  even  to  an 
extent  that  overpowered  the  reticent  habits  of  his 
Secretary  of  War,  who,  after  holding  his  tongue  as 
long  as  he  could,  broke  out  sternly : 

"Mr.  President,  to-morrow  is  inauguration  day.  If 
you  are  not  to  be  the  President  of  an  obedient  and 
united  people,  you  had  hetter  not  he  inaugurated.  Your 
work  is  already  done,  if  any  other  authority  than 
yours  is  for  one  moment  to  be  recognized,  or  any  terms 


HIS  REPROOF    OF   MR.     LINCOLN.  373 

made  tliat  do  not  signify  that  you  are  the  supreme 
head  of  the  nation.  If  generals  in  the  field  are  to  ne- 
gotiate peace,  or  any  other  chief  magistrate  is  to  be 
acknowledged  on  this  continent,  then  you  are  not  need- 
ed and  you  had  better  not  take  the  oath  of  office." 

"  Stanton,  you  are  right,"  said  the  President,  his 
whole  tone  changing.    "  Let  me  have  a  pen." 

Mr.  Lincoln  sat  down  at  the  table,  and  wrote  as 
follows : 

"  The  President  directs  me  to  say  to  you  that  he 
wishes  you  to  have  no  conference  with  General  Lee, 
unless  it  be  for  the  capitulation  of  Lee's  army,  or  on 
some  minor  or  purely  military  matter.  He  instructs 
me  to  say  that  you  are  not  to  decide,  discuss,  or  con- 
fer upon  any  political  question ;  such  questions  the  Pres- 
ident holds  in  his  own  hands,  and  will  submit  them  to  no 
military  conference  or  conventions.  In  the  mean  time 
you  are  to  press  to  the  utmost  your  military  advantages." 
The  President  then  read  over  what  he  had  written, 
and  then  said : 

"Now  Stanton,  date  and  sign  this  paper,  and  send 
it  to  Grant.     We'll  see  about  this  peace  business.  " 

An  account  which  appeared  in  a  Cincinnati  paper 
during  the  war,  of  a  curious  transaction  at  Washing- 
ton, shows  that  Mr.  Lincoln  was  as  steady  in  trusting 
to  Mr.  Stanton's  own  wisdom  in  action,  as  he  was 
ready  to  acknowledge  the  justice  of  the  Secretary's 
reproofs  on  a  question  of  constitutional  propriety. 
This  account  is  as  follows  : 

"While  the  President  was  on  his  way  back  from 
Richmond,  and  at  a  point  where  no  telegraph  could 
reach  the  steamer  upon  which  he  was,  a  dispatch  of 


374  EDWIM   M.    STANTON. 

the  utmost  importance  reached  Washington,  demand- 
ing the  immediate  decision  of  the  President  himself. 
The  dispatch  was  received  by  a  confidential  staff  officer, 
who  at  once  ascertained  that  Mr.  Lincoln  could  not  be 
reached.  Delay  was  out  of  the  question,  as  impor- 
tant army  movements  were  involved.  The  officer  hav- 
ing the  dispatch  went  with  it  directly  to  Mr.  Stanton's 
office,  but  the  Secretary  could  not  be  found.  Messen- 
gers were  hastily  dispatched  for  him  in  all  directions. 
Their  search  was  useless,  and  a  positive  answer  had  been 
already  too  much  delayed  by  the  time  it  had  occupied. 
With  great  reluctance  the  staff  officer  sent  a  reply  in 
the  President's  name.  Soon  after,  Mr.  Stanton  entered 
himself,  having  learned  of  the  efforts  made  to  find  him. 
The  dispatch  was  produced,  and  he  was  informed  by 
the  officer  sending  the  answer,  of  what  had  been  done. 

"  '  Did  I  do  right  V  said  the  officer  to  the  Secretary. 

"^Yes,  Major,'  replied  Mr.  Stanton,  'I  think  you 
have  sent  the  correct  reply,  but  I  should  hardly  have 
dared  to  take  the  responsibility.' 

"  At  this  the  whole  magnitude  of  the  office  and  the 
great  responsibility  he  had  taken  upon  himself,  seemed 
to  fall  upon  the  officer,  and  almost  overcame  him  ;  and 
he  asked  Mr.  Stanton  what  he  had  better  do,  and  was 
advised  to  go  directly  to  the  President,  on  his  return, 
and  state  the  case  frankly  to  him.  It  was  a  sleepless 
night  to  the  officer,  and  at  the  very  earliest  hour  con- 
sistent with  propriety  he  went  to  the  White  House." 

Here  the  officer,  scarcely  even  by  the  accidental  in- 
terposition of  the  President's  son,  was  able  to  reach 
him,  as  there  were  strict  orders  for  his  privacy  just 


Lincoln's  affection  for  him.  .  375 

then.  At  last,  lie  entered  the  President's  room,  and, 
the  story  continues, 

"  The  dispatch  was  shown  him,  and  the  action  upon 
it  stated  frankly  and  briefly.  The  President  thought 
a  moment  and  then  said,  '  Did  you  consult  the  Secre- 
tary of  War,  Major  ?  '  The  absence  of  the  Secretary 
at  the  important  moment  was  then  related  to  Mr.  Lin- 
coln, with  the  subsequent  remark  of  Mr.  Stanton,  that 
he  thought  the  right  answer  had  been  given,  but  that 
himself  would  have  shrunk  from  the  responsibility. 

"  Mr.  Lincoln,  on  hearing  the  story,  rose,  crossed  the 
room,  and  taking  the  officer  by  the  hand,  thanked  him 
cordially,  and  then  spoke  of  Mr.  Stanton  as  follows  : 

"  '  Hereafter,  Major,  when  you  have  Mr.  Stanton's 
sanction  in  any  matter,  you  have  mine,  for  so  great  is 
my  confidence  in  his  judgment  and  patriotism,  that  I 
never  wish  to  take  an  important  step  myself  without 
first  consulting  him.' " 

Only  a  few  days  before  his  death,  Mr.  Lincoln  gave 
a  still  more  striking  testimony  of  the  affectionate  na- 
ture of  his  regard  for  Mr.  Stanton.  This  was  when 
Mr.  Stanton  tendered  him  his  resignation  of  the  War 
Department,  on  the  ground  that  the  work  for  whose 
sake  he  had  taken  it,  was  now  done. 

"  Mr.  Lincoln,"  says  a  witness,  "  was  greatly  moved 
by  the  Secretary's  words,  and  tearing  in  pieces  the 
paper  containing  the  resignation,  and  throwing  his 
arms  about  the  Secretary,  he  said,  '  Stanton,  you  have 
been  a  good  friend  and  a  faithful  public  servant,  and 
it  is  not  for  you  to  say  when  you  will  no  longer  be 
needed  here.'     Several  friends  of  both  parties  were 


376  EDWIN   M.    STANTON. 

present  on  this  occasion,  and  there  was  not  a  dry  eye 
that  witnessed  the  scene." 

Mr,  Stanton  occupied  a  situation  of  torturing  re- 
sponsibility and  distracting  cares.  He  bore  burdens 
of  perplexity  and  doubt  and  apprehension  such  as 
might  tax  the  stoutest  nerves.  His  only  mode  of 
meeting  and  repelling  the  dashing  waves  of  hourly  so- 
licitations and  the  thousand  agencies  which  beset  a  man 
in  his  position,  was  to  make  himself  externally  as  rug- 
ged and  stern  as  a  rock. 

But  those  who  knew  him  intimately,  as  did  Lincoln, 
and  as  did  many  others  who  were  drawn  towards  him, 
interiorly,  during  the  wrench  of  the  great  struggle, 
knew  that  deep  within  there  was  a  heart,  warm,  kind, 
true  and  humbly  religious — deeply  feeling  his  respon- 
sibilities to  God,  and  seeking  with  honest  purpose  to 
fulfil  his  duties  in  the  awful  straits  in  which  he  was 

« 

placed.  To  a  lady  for  whom  he  had  performed  in  the 
way  of  his  office  some  kindness,  and  who  expressed 
gratitude,  he  writes : 

"In  respect  to  the  matter  in  which  you  feel  a  per- 
sonal interest  and  refer  to  with  kind  expressions  of 
gratitude  towards  myself,  I  am  glad  that  in  the  discharge 
of  simple  duty  I  have  been  able  to  relieve  an  anxious 
care  in  the  heart  of  any  one,  and  much  more  in  the 
hearts  of  persons,  who  although  personally  unknown 
to' me,  I  have  been  accustomed  from  early  youth  to 
reverence. 
"In  my  official  station  I  have  tried  to  do  my  duty  as 
I  shall  answer  to  God  at  the  Great  Day,  but  it  is  the 
misfortune  of  that  station — a  misfortune  that  no  one 
else  can  comprehend  the  magnitude  of,  that  most  of 


THE   COUNTRY   HIS   DEBTOR.  377 

my  duties  are  harsh  and  painful  to  some  one,  so  that  I 
rejoice  at  an  opportunity,  however  rare,  of  combinino- 
duty  with  kindly  ofi&ces." 

It  remains  to  be  seen  what  farther  services,  if  any, 
Mr.  Stanton  will  render  to  his  country  in  a  public  ca- 
pacity. Should  he  again  be  a  public  servant,  it  will 
be  as  it  has  been,  the  United  States,  and  not  he,  who 
will  be  the  obliged  party. 


CHAPTER  Xn. 

FREDERICK    DOUGLASS. 

The  Opportunity  for  Every  Man  in  a  Republic— The  Depth  Below  a  White 
Man's  Poverty— The  Starting  Point  wlience  Fred  Douglass  Raised  Himself— 
His  Mother— Her  Noble  Traits— Her  Self-Denial  for  the  sake  of  Seeing  him— 
She  Defends  him  against  Aunt  Katy— Her  Death— Col.  Loyd's  Plantation— 
The  Luxury  of  his  own  Mansion— The  Organization  of  his  Estate — "  Old 
Master" — How  they  Punished  the  "Women— How  Young  Douglass  Philoso- 
pliized  on  Being  a  Slave— Plantation  Life— Tlie  Allowance  of  Food— The 
Clothes — An  Average  Plantation  Day— Mr.  Douglass'  Experience  as  a  Slave 
Child— The  Slave  Children's  Trough— The  Slave  Child's  Thoughts— The 
Melancholy  of  Slave  Songs— He  Becomes  a  House  Servant— A  Kind  Mistress 
Teaches  him  to  Read — How  he  completed  liis  Education — Effects  of  Learning 
to  Read — Experiences  Religion  and  Prays  for  Liberty. — Learns  to  Write — Hires 
his  Time,  and  Absconds — Becomes  a  Free  Working-Man  in  New  Bedford — 
Marries — Mr.  Douglass  on  Garrison — Mr.  Douglass'  Literary  Career. 

The  reader  will  perceive,  in  reading  the  memoirs 
which  we  have  collected  in  the  present  volume,  that 
although  they  give  a  few  instances  of  men  who  have 
risen  to  distinction  from  comfortable  worldly  circum- 
stances, by  making  a  good  use  of  the  provision  afford- 
ed them  by  early  competence  and  leisure,  yet  by  far 
the  greater  number  have  raised  themselves  by  their 
own  unaided  efforts,  in  spite  of  every  disadvantage 
which  circumstances  could  throw  in  their  way. 

It  is  the  pride  and  the  boast  of  truly  republican  in- 
stitutions that  they  give  to  every  human  being  an  op- 
portunity of  thus  demonstrating  what  is  in  him.  If  a 
man  is  a  man,  no  matter  in  what  rank  of  society  he  is 
born,  no  mk,tter  how  tied  down  and  weighted  by  pov- 
erty and  all  its  attendant  disadvantages,  there  is  noth- 
ing in  our  American  institutions  to  prevent  his  rising 


-'■'g'byAH-Rinii'-" 


/ 


THE    DEPTH   BELOW    AVHITE    MEx's   POVERTY.  381 

to  the  very  highest  offices  in  the  gift  of  the  countiy. 
So,  though  a  man  like  Charles  Sumner,  coming  of  an 
old  Boston  family,  with  every  advantage  of  Boston 
schools  and  of  Cambridge  college,  becomes  distin- 
guished through  the  country,  yet  side  by  side  with 
him  we  see  Abraham  Lincoln,  the  rail  splitter,  Henry 
Wilson,  from  the  shoemaker's  bench,  and  Chase,  from 
a  New  Hampshire  farm.  But  there  have  been  in  our 
country  some  three  or  four  million  of  human  beings 
who  were  born  to  a  depth  of  poverty  below  what 
Henrv  Wilson  or  Abraham  Lincoln  ever  dreamed  of. 
Wilson  and  Lincoln,  to  begin  with,  owned  nothing 
but  their  bare  hands,  but  there  have  been  in  this  coun- 
try four  or  five  million  men  and  women  who  did  not 
own  even  their  bare  hands.  Wilson  and  Lincoln,  and 
other  brave  men  like  them,  owned  their  own  souls 
and  wills — they  were  free  to  say,  "Thus  and  thus  I 
will  do — I  will  be  educated,  I  will  be  intelligent,  I 
will  be  Christian,  I  will  by  honest  industry  amass  prop- 
erty to  serve  me  in  my  upward  aims."  But  there  were 
four  million  men  and  women  in  America  who  were 
decreed  by  the  laws  of  this  country  not  to  own  even 
their  own  souls.  The  law  said  of  them — They  shall 
be  taken  and  held  as  chattels  personal  to  all  intents 
and  purposes.  This  hapless  class  of  human  beings 
might  be  sold  for  debt,  might  be  mortgaged  for  real 
estate,  nay,  the  unborn  babe  might  be  pledged  or 
mortgaged  for  the  debts  of  a  master.  There  were 
among  these  unfortunate  millions,  in  the  eye  of  the 
law,  neither  husbands  nor  wives,  nor  fathers  nor  moth- 
ers ;  they  were  only  chattels  personal.  They  could  no 
more  contract  a  legal  marriage  than  a  bedstead  can 
24 


382  FREDERICK    DOUGLASS. 

marry  a  cooking-stove,  or  a  plough  be  wedded  to  a 
spinning  wlieel.  They  were  week  after  week  adver- 
tised in  public  prints  to  be  sold  in  company  with 
horses,  cows,  pigs,  hens,  and  other  stock  of  a  planta- 
tion. 

They  were  forbidden  to  learn  to  read.  The  slave 
laws  imposed  the  same  penalty  on  the  man  who  should 
teach  a  slave  to  read  as  on  the  man  who  wilfully  put 
out  his  eyes.  They  had  no  legal  right  to  be  Christians, 
or  enter  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  because  the  law  re- 
garded them  simply  as  personal  property,  subject  to 
the  caprice  of  an  owner,  and  when  the  owner  did  not 
choose  to  have  his  property  be  a  Christian,  he  could 
shut  him  out  from  the  light  of  the  gospel  as  easily  as 
one  can  close  a  window  shutter. 

Now  if  we  think  it  a  great  thing  that  Wilson  and 
Lincoln  raised  themselves  from  a  state  of  comparative- 
ly early  disadvantage  to  high  places  in  the  land,  what 
shall  we  think  of  one  who  started  from  this  immeas- 
ureable  gulf  below  them  ? 

Frederick  Douglass  had  as  far  to  climb  to  get  to  the 
spot  where  the  poorest  free  white  boy  is  born,  as  that 
white  boy  has  to  climb  to  be  president  of  the  nation, 
and  take  rank  with  kings  and  judges  of  the  earth. 

There  are  few  young  men  born  to  competence,  car- 
ried carefully  through  all  the  earlier  stages  of  train- 
ing, drilled  in  grammar  school,  and  perfected  by  a 
four  years'  college  course,  who  could  stand  up  on  a 
platform  and  compete  successfully  with  Frederick 
Douglass  as  an  orator.  Nine  out  of  ten  of  college  edu- 
cated young  men  would  shrink  even  from  the  trial, 
and  yet  Frederick  Douglass  fought  his  way  up  from  a 


WHENCE    FRED  DOUGLASS   RAISED    HIMSELF.  383 

nameless  hovel  on  a  Maryland  plantation,  where  with 
hundreds  of  others  of  the  young  live  stock  he  shivered 
in  his  little  tow  shirt,  the  only  garment  allowed  him 
for  summer  and  winter,  kept  himself  warm  by  sitting 
on  the  sunny  side  of  out  buildings,  like  a  little  dog, 
and  often  was  glad  to  dispute  with  the  pigs  for  the 
scraps  of  what  came  to  them  to  satisfy  his  hunger. 

From  this  position  he  has  raised  himself  to  the  hab- 
its of  mind,  thought  and  life  of  a  cultivated  gentle- 
man, and  from  that  point  of  sight  has  illustrated  ex- 
actly what  slavery  was,  (thank  God  we  write  in  the 
past  tense,)  in  an  autobiography  which  most  affecting- 
ly  presents  what  it  is  to  be  born  a  slave.  Every  man 
who  struck  a  stroke  in  our  late  great  struggle — every 
man  or  woman  who  made  a  sacrifice  for  it — every  one 
conscious  of  inward  bleedings  and  cravings  that  never 
shall  be  healed  or  assuaged,  for  what  they  have  ren- 
dered up  in  this  great  anguish,  ought  to  read  this  au- 
tobiography of  a  slave  man,  and  give  thanks  to  God 
that  even  by  the  bitterest  sufferings  they  have  been 
permitted  to  do  something  to  wipe  such  a  disgrace 
and  wrong  from  the  earth. 

The  first  thing  that  every  man  remembers  is  his 
mother.  Americans  all  have  a  mother  at  least  that 
can  be  named.  But  it  is  exceedingly  affecting  to  read 
the  history  of  a  human  being  who  writes  that  during 
all  his  childhood  he  never  saw  his  mother  more  than 
two  or  three  times,  and  then  only  in  the  night.  And 
why?  Because  she  was  employed  on  a  plantation 
twelve  miles  away.  Her  only  means  of  seeing  her 
boy  were  to  walk  twelve  miles  over  to  the  place  where 
he  was,   spend  a  brief  hour,   and  walk  twelve  miles 


384  FREDERICK    DOUGLASS. 

back,  so  as  to  be  ready  to  go  to  work  at  four 
o'clock  in  the  morning.  How  many  mothers  would 
often  visit  their  children  by  such  an  effort  ?  and  yet 
at  well  remembered  intervals  the  mother  of  Frederick 
Douglass  did  this  for  the  sake  of  holding  her  child  a 
little  while  in  her  arms,  lying  down  a  brief  hour  with 
him. 

That  she  was  a  woman  of  uncommon  energy  and 
strength  of  affection  this  sufficiently  shows,  because  as 
slave  mother  she  could  do  him  no  earthly  good — she 
owned  not  a  cent  to  bring  him.  She  could  not  buy 
him  clothes.  She  could  not  even  mend  or  wash  the 
one  garment  allotted  to  him. 

Only  once  in  his  childhood  did  he  remember  his 
mother's  presence  as  being  to  him  anything  of  that 
comfort  and  protection  that  it  is  to  ordinary  children. 
He,  with  all  the  other  little  live  stock  of  the  planta- 
tion, were  dependent  for  a  daily  allowance  of  food  on 
a  cross  old  woman  whom  they  called  Aunt  Katy,  For 
some  reason  of  her  own,  Aunt  Katy  had  taken  a  pique 
against  little  Fred,  and  announced  to  him  that  she  was 
going  to  keep  him  a  day  without  food.  At  the  close 
of  this  day,  when  he  crept  shivering  in  among  the 
other  children,  and  was  denied  even  the  coarse  slice 
of  corn  bread  which  all  the  rest  had,  he  broke  out 
into  loud  lamentations.  Suddenly  his  mother  appear- 
ed behind  him — caught  him  in  her  arms,  poured  out 
volumes  of  wrathful  indignation  on  Aunt  Katy,  and 
threatened  to  complain  to  the  overseer  if  she  did  not 
give  him  his  share  of  food — produced  from  her  bosom 
a  sweet  cake  which  she  had  managed  to  procure  for 
him,  and  sat  down  to  wipe  away  his  tears  and  see  him 


MR.    DOUGLASS'    MOTHER.  385 

enjoy  it.  This  mother  must  have  been  a  woman  of 
strong  mental  characteristics.  Though  a  plantation 
field  hand,  she  could  read,  and  if  we  consider  against 
what  superhuman  difficulties  such  a  knowledge  must 
have  been  acquired,  it  is  an  evidence  of  wonderful 
character.  Douglass  says  of  her  that  she  was  tall  and 
finely  proportioned.  With  affecting  simplicity  he 
says :  "  There  is  in  Pritchard's  Natural  History  of  Man, 
p.  157,  the  head  of  a  figure  the  features  of  which  so 
resemble  those  of  my  mother,  that  I  often  recur  to  it 
with  something  of  the  feeling  which  I  suppose  others 
to  experience  when  looking  on  the  pictures  of  dear 
departed  ones." 

The  face  alluded  to  is  copied  from  a  head  of  Rame- 
ses  the  great  Egyptian  king  of  the  nineteenth  dynasty. 
The  profile  is  European  in  its  features,  and  similar  in 
class  to  the  head  of  Napoleon.  From  all  these  con- 
siderations, we  have  supposed  that  the  mother  of 
Douglass  must  have  been  one  of  that  Mandingo  tribe 
of  Africans  who  were  distinguished  among  the  slaves 
for  fine  features,  great  energy,  intelligence  and  pride 
of  character.  The  black  population  of  America  is 
not  one  race.  If  slaveholders  and  kidnappers  had  been 
busy  for  years  in  Europe  stirring  up  wars  in  the  differ- 
ent countries,  and  sending  all  the  captives  to  be  sold  in 
America,  the  mixture  of  Swedes,  Danes,  Germans, 
Russians,  Italians,  French,  might  all  have  gone  under 
the  one  head  of  Whitemen,  but  they  would  have  been 
none  the  more  of  the  same  race.  The  negroes  of  this 
country  are  a  mixture  torn  from  tribes  and  races  quite 
as  dissimilar.  The  Mandingo  has  European  features, 
a  fine  form,  wavy,  not  woolly  hair,  is  intelligent,  vig- 


386  FREDERICK  DOUGLASS. 

orous,  proud  and  brave.  The  Guinea  negro  has 
a  coarse,  animal  head,  is  stupid,  dirty,  cunning.  Yet 
the  argument  on  negro  powers  is  generally  based  on 
some  such  sweeping  classification  as  takes  the  Guinea 
negro  for  its  type. 

The  father  of  Frederick  Douglass  was  a  white  man, 
who,  he  never  knew — it  would  have  been  of  no  ad- 
vantage to  him  had  he  known — but  there  is  reason  to 
think  that  those  fine  intellectual  gifts,  that  love  of  lib- 
erty, and  hatred  of  slavery  which  have  led  him  to  the 
position  he  now  occupies  among  freemen,  were  due  to 
the  blood  of  his  mother.  That  silent,  noble  black 
woman,  whose  wrongs  were  borne  in  such  patience, 
whose  soul  must  so  often  have  burned  within  her,  whose 
affections  were  stronger  than  weariness,  and  whose 
mind  would  possess  the  key  of  knowledge  even  though 
she  gained  it  at  such  terrible  sacrifices  and  hazards, 
she  is  to  be  honored  as  the  mother  of  Garrison  is,  as 
having  lived  in  her  son  and  being  the  true  author  and 
inspirer  of  all  that  is  good  and  just  in  him. 

After  a  few  short  interviews  the  communication  be- 
tween Douglass  and  his  mother  ceased.  She  was  taken 
sick,  had  a  long  illness  and  died  without  a  word  or 
message,  or  any  token  passing  between  her  and  her 
child.  He  running  wild,  a  dirty  little  animal  on  the 
distant  plantation,  she  suffering,  wasting,  dying  in  si- 
lence— going  into  the  great  Invisible  where  so  many 
helpless  mothers  have  gone  to  plead  for  their  children 
before  God. 

The  plantation  of  Col.  Loyd,  on  which  Fred  Doug- 
lass was  raised,  was  a  representative  fact  illustrating 
what   may  be  known  of  slavery.      There  might   be 


WEALTH    OF    DOUGLASS    OWNER,  387 

seen  a  large  airy  elegant  house,  filled  with  every  lux- 
ury and  comfort,  the  abode  of  hospitality  and  leisure. 
Company  always  coming  and  going — bountiful  tables 
spread  with  every  delicacy  of  sea  and  land — choice 
cookery,  old  wines,  massive  plate,  splendid  curtains 
and  pictures,  all  combined  to  give  the  impression  of  a 
joyous  and  abundant  life.  Fifteen  well  dressed,  well 
trained  servants,  chosen  for  good  looks  and  good  man- 
ners, formed  an  obsequious  army  of  attendants  behind 
the  chairs  of  guests  at  the  dinner  hour,  or  waited  on 
them  in  their  private  apartments. 

The  shrubbery,  the  flower  gardens,  the  ample  lawns, 
were  laid  out  with  European  taste,  the  stables  had 
studs  of  the  finest  blood  horses  at  the  disposal 
of  guests — all  was  cultivation,  elegance  and  refine- 
ment. 

Col,  Loyd  was  supposed  to  own  a  thousand  slaves, 
and  what  the  life  was  on  which  all  this  luxury  and  ele- 
gance was  built,  the  history  of  Douglass  and  his  mother 
may  show.  Col.  Loyd  owned  several  contiguous  farms 
or  plantations,  each  one  under  an  overseer,  and  all 
were  under  the  general  supervision  of  an  agent  who 
lived  on  the  central  plantation  and  went  by  the  name 
among  the  slaves  of  Old  Master,  Between  this  man 
and  his  family,  and  Col.  Loyd  and  his  family,  there  was 
none  of  the  intercourse  of  ecjuals.  No  visits  were  ever 
exchanged,  and  no  intercourse  except  of  a  necessary 
business  character  ever  took  place.  The  owner  and 
his  family  had  nothing  to  do  with  the  management  of 
the  estates  any  further  than  to  enjoy  and  dispense  the 
revenues  they  brought;  in  all  the  rest  was  left  to  "  Old 
Master  and  the  Overseers,"  The  estate  was  as  secluded 


388  FREDERICK    DOUGLASS. 

from  all  influence  of  public  opinion,  and  tlie  slaves 
were  as  completely  in  the  power  of  the  overseers,  as 
the  serfs  in  the  feudal  ages.  Even  the  vessels  which 
carried  the  produce  of  the  plantation  to  Baltimore, 
were  owned  by  Col.  Loyd.  Every  man  and  boy  by 
whom  these  vessels  were  worked,  excepting  the  cap- 
tains, were  Col.  Loyd's  property.  All  the  artizans  on 
all  the  places,  the  blacksmiths,  wheel  wrights,  shoe  mak- 
ers, weavers  and  coopers,  also  were  pieces  of  property 
belonging  to  Col.  Loyd.  What  chance  was  there  for 
laws  or  for  public  sentiment,  or  any  other  humanizing 
influence,  to  restrain  absolute  power  in  a  district  so 
governed  ? 

One  of  the  earliest  lessons  in  the  practical  meaning 
of  slavery  was  taught  to  the  child  by  hearing  the 
shrieks  and  groans  of  a  favorite  Aunt  Esther,  under 
the  lash  of  Old  Master.  She  was  a  finely  formed,  hand- 
some woman,  and  had  the  presumption  to  prefer  a 
young  slave  man  to  her  master,  and  for  this  she  was 
made  the  victim  of  degradation  and  torture. 

On  another  occasion  he  saw  a  young  girl  who  came 
from  one  of  the  neighboring  plantations,  with  her  head 
cut  and  bleeding  from  the  brutality  of  the  overseer, 
to  put  herself  under  the  protection  of  Old  Master. 
Though  the  brutality  of  her  treatment  was  perfectly 
evident,  he  heard  her  met  only  with  reproaches  and 
oaths  and  ordered  to  go  back  at  once  or  expect  even 
severer  treatment.  This  was  a  part  of  an  unvarying 
system.  It  was  a  fixed  rule,  never  to  listen  to  com- 
plaints of  any  kind  from  a  slave,  and  even  when  they 
were  evidently  well  founded,  to  affect  to  disregard 
them.     That  the  slave  was  to  have  no  appeal  in  any 


THE    SLAVES    HOUSEKEEPING.  389 

case  from  tlie  absolute  power  of  tlie  overseer,  was  a 
fundamental  maxim  of  the  system. 

Endowed  by  bis  mother  with  an  intelligent  and 
thoughtful  organization,  young  Douglass  began  early 
to  turn  in  his  mind  the  dark  question,  "  Why  am  I  a 
slavef''  On  this  subject  he  pushed  enquiries  among 
his  little  play -fellows  and  the  elderly  negroes,  but  could 
get  no  satisfactory  solution,  except  that  some  remem- 
bered that  their  fathers  and  mothers  were  stolen  from 
Africa.  When  not  more  than  seven  or  eight  years  old 
these  thoughts  burned  in  him,  whenever  he  wandered 
through  the  woods  and  fields,  and  a  strong  determina- 
tion to  become  a  freeman  in  future  life  took  posses- 
sion of  him.  It  may  have  been  inspired  by  the  invis- 
ible guardianship  of  that  poor  mother,  who,  unable  to 
help  him  in  life,  may  have  been  permitted  higher  pow- 
ers in  the  world  of  spirits. 

The  comments  which  Douglass  makes  on  many  feat- 
ures of  slave  life,  as  they  affected  his  childish  mind, 
are  very  peculiar,  and  show  slavery  entirely  from  an 
inside  point  of  view. 

In  regard  to  the  physical  comforts  of  plantation  life, 
he  gives  the  following  account : 

"  It  is  the  boast  of  slaveholders  that  their  slaves  enjoy 
more  of  the  physical  comforts  of  life  than  the  peasan- 
try of  any  country  in  the  world.  My  experience  con- 
tradicts  this.  The  men  and  the  women  slaves  on  Col. 
Loyd's  plantation  received  as  their  monthly  allowance, 
eight  pounds  of  pickled  pork  or  their  equivalent  in 
fish.  The  pork  was  often  tainted  and  the  fish  of  the 
poorest  quality.  With  this,  they  had  one  bushel  of 
unbolted  Indian  meal,  of  which  quite  fifteen  per  cent. 


390  FREDERICK    DOUGLASS. 

was  fit  only  for  pigs ;  with  this  one  pint  of  salt  was 
given,  and  this  was  the  entire  monthly  allowance  of  a 
full  grown  slave,  working  constantly  in  the  open  field, 
from  morning  till  night,  every  day  of  the  month,  ex- 
cept Sundays.  This  was  living  on  a  fraction  more 
than  a  quarter  of  a  pound  of  poor  meat  per  day,  and 
less  than  a  peck  of  corn  meal  per  week,  and  there  is 
no  work  requiring  more  abundant  supply  of  food  to 
prevent  physical  exhaustion,  than  the  field  work  of  a 
slave. 

"So  much  for  food.  Now  as  for  raiment.  The  year- 
ly allowance  of  clothing  for  slaves  on  this  plantation, 
consisted  of  two  linen  shirts,  one  pair  of  tow  trowsers  for 
summer,  a  pair  of  trowsers  and  jacket  of  slazy  work- 
manship for  winter,  one  pair  of  yarn  stockings,  and 
one  pair  of  coarse  shoes.  The  slave's  entire  apparel 
could  not  have  cost  more  than  eight  dollars  a  year. 
Children  not  yet  able  to  work  in  the  field  had  neither 
shoes,  stockings,  jackets  or  trowsers  given  them. 
Their  clothing  consisted  of  two  coarse  tow  linen  shirts 
per  year,  and  when  these  failed,  they  went  literally 
naked  till  next  allowance  day.  Flocks  of  children 
fi^om  five  to  ten  years  old  might  be  seen  on  Col.  Loyd's 
plantations  as  destitute  of  clothing  as  any  little  heathen 
in  Africa  and  this  even  in  the  frosty  month  of  March. 

"As  to  beds  to  sleep  on,  none  were  given — nothing 
but  a  coarse  blanket,  such  as  is  used  in  the  North  to 
cover  horses — and  these  were  not  provided  for  little 
ones, 

"The  children  cuddled  in  holes  and  corners  about  the 
quarters,  often  in  the  corners  of  the  huge  chimneys 
with  their  feet  in  the  ashes  to  keep  them  warm." 


AN   AVERAGE    PLAN'TATION    DAY.  391 

An  average  day  of  plantation  life  is  thus  given : 
"  Old  and  young,  male  and  female,  married  and  sin- 
gle, drop  down  together  on  the  clay  floor  of  the  cabin 
each  evening  with  his  or  her  blanket.  The  night  how- 
ever is  shortened  at  both  ends.  The  slaves  work  often 
as  long  as  they  can  see,  and  are  late  in  cooking  and 
mending  for  the  coming  day,  and  at  the  first  grey 
streak  of  morning  are  summoned  to  the  field  by  the 
driver's  horn. 

"  More  slaves  are  whipped  for  oversleeping  than  for 
any  other  fault.  The  overseer  stands  at  the  quarter 
door,  armed  with  his  cowhide,  ready  to  whip  any  who 
may  be  a  few  minutes  behind  time.  When  the  horn 
is  blown,  there  is  a  rush  for  the  door,  and  the  hinder- 
most  one  is  sure  to  get  a  blow  from  the  overseer. 
Young  mothers  working  in  the  field  were  allowed  about 
ten  o'clock  to  go  home  and  nurse  their  children.  Some- 
times they  are  obliged  to  take  their  children  with  them 
and  leave  them  in  the  corners  of  the  fences,  to  pre- 
vent loss  of  time.  The  overseer  rides  round  the  field 
on  horseback.  A  cowskin  and  a  hickory  stick  are  his 
constant  companions.  The  slaves  take  their  breakfast 
with  them  and  eat  it  in  the  field.  The  dinner  of  the 
slave  consists  of  a  huge  piece  of  ash  cake,  that  is  to 
say,  unbolted  corn  meal  and  water,  stirred  up  and 
baked  in  the  ashes.  To  this  a  small  slice  of  pork  or  a 
couple  of  salt  herring  were  added.  A  few  moments 
of  rest  is  allowed  at  dinner,  which  is  variously  spent. 
Some  lie  down  on  the  "  turning  row  "  and  go  to  sleep. 
Others  draw  together  and  talk,  others  are  at  work 
with  needle  and  thread  mending  then-  tattered  gar- 
ments ;  but  soon  the  overseer  comes  dashing  in  upon 


392  FREDERICK  DOUGLASS. 

tliem.  Tumble  up — tumble  up  is  the  word,  and  now 
from  twelve  o'clock  till  dark,  the  human  cattle  are  in 
motion,  wielding  their  clumsy  hoes,  inspired  by  no 
hope  of  reward,  no  sense  of  gratitude,  no  love  of  chil- 
dren,-no  prospect  of  bettermg  their  condition,  noth- 
ing save  the  dread  and  terror  of  the  driver's  lash.  So 
goes  one  day  and  so  comes  another."  This  is  slavery 
as  remembered  by  a  cultivated,  intelligent  man  who 
was  born  and  bred  a  slave. 

In  regard  to  his  own  peculiar  lot  as  a  child  on  this 
plantation,  he  says:  "I  was  seldom  whipped,  and 
never  severely,  by  my  old  master.  I  suffered  little 
from  any  treatment  I  received,  except  from  hunger 
and  cold.  I  could  get  enough  neither  of  food  or 
clothing,  but  suffered  more  from  cold  than  hunger. 
In  the  heat  of  summer  or  cold  of  winter  alike  I  was 
kept  almost  in  a  state  of  nudity — no  shoes,  stockings, 
jacket,  trowsers — nothing  but  a  coarse  tow  linen  shirt 
reaching  to  the  knee.  This  I  wore  night  and  day.  In 
the  daytime  I  could  protect  myself  pretty  well  by  keep- 
ing on  the  sunny  side  of  the  house,  and  in  bad  weath- 
er in  the  corner  of  the  kitchen  chimney.  The  great 
difl&culty  was  to  keep  warm  at  night.  I  had  no  bed. 
The  pigs  in  the  pen  had  leaves,  and  horses  in  the  sta- 
ble had  straw,  but  the  children  had  nothing.  In  very 
cold  weather  I  sometimes  got  down  the  bag  in  which 
corn  was  carried  to  the  mill,  and  got  into  that.  My 
feet  have  been  so  cracked  by  the  frost  that  the  pen 
with  which  I  am  writing  might  be  laid  in  the  gashes. 

"The  manner  of  taking  our  meals  at  old  master's, 
indicated  but  little  refinement.  Our  corn-meal  mush, 
when  sufficiently  cooled,  was  placed  in  a  large  wooden 


THE    slave-child's   THOUGHTS.        '  393 

tray,  or  trough,  like  those  used  in  making  maple  sugar 
here  in  the  north.  This  tray  was  set  down,  either  on 
the  floor  of  the  kitchen  or  out  of  doors  on  the  ground ; 
and  the  childi'en  were  called,  like  so  many  pigs ;  and 
like  so  many  pigs  they  would  come,  and  literally  de- 
vour the  mush — some  with  oyster  shells,  some  with 
pieces  of  shingles,  and  none  with  spoons.  He  that 
ate  fastest  got  most,  and  he  that  was  strongest  got  the 
best  place ;  and  few  left  the  trough  really  satisfied.  I 
was  the  most  unlucky  of  any,  for  Aunt  Katy  had  no 
good  feeling  for  me ;  and  if  I  pushed  any  of  the  other 
children,  or  if  they  told  her  anything  unfavorable  of 
me,  she  always  believed  the  worst,  and  was  sure  to 
whip  me." 

The  effect  of  all  this  on  his  childish  mind  is  thus 
told: 

"As  I  grew  older  and  more  thoughtful,  I  was  more 
and  more  filled  with  a  sense  of  my  wretchedness.  The 
cruelty  of  Aunt  Katy,  the  hunger  and  cold  I  suffered, 
and  the  terrible  reports  of  wrong  and  outrage  which 
came  to  my  ear,  together  with  what  I  almost  daily 
witnessed,  led  me,  when  yet  but  eight  or  nine  years 
old,  to  wish  I  had  never  been  born.  I  used  to  con- 
trast my  condition  with  the  blackbirds,  in  whose  wild 
and  sweet  songs  I  fancied  them  so  happy !  Their  ap- 
parent joy  only  deepened  the  shades  of  my  sorrow. 
There  are  thoughtful  days  in  the  lives  of  children — at 
least  there  were  in  mine — when  they  grapple  with  all 
the  great  primary  subjects  of  knowledge,  and  reach 
in  a  moment,  conclusions  which  no  subsequent  experi- 
ence can  shake.  I  was  just  as  well  aware  of  the  un- 
just, unnatural,   and  murderous  character  of  slavery, 


394  FREDERICK    DOUGLASS. 

when  nine  years  old,  as  I  am  now.  Without  any  ap- 
peal to  books,  to  laws,  or  to  authorities  of  any  kind, 
it  was  enough  to  accept  God  as  a  father,  to  regard 
slavery  as  a  crime." 

Douglass'  remarks  on  the  singing  of  slaves  are  very 
striking.  Speaking  of  certain  days  of  each  month 
when  the  slaves  from  the  diiferent  farms  came  up  to 
the  central  plantation  to  get  their  monthly  allowances 
of  meal  and  meat,  he  says  that  there  was  always  great 
contention  among  the  slaves  as  to  who  should  go  up 
with  the  ox  team  for  this  purpose.     He  says : 

"Probably  the  chief  motive  of  the  competitors  for 
the  place,  was  a  desire  to  break  the  dull  monotony 
of  the  field,  and  to  get  beyond  the  overseer's  eye 
and  lash.  Once  on  the  road  with  an  ox  team,  and 
seated  on  the  tongue  of  his  cart,  with  no  overseer 
to  look  after  him,  the  slave  was  comparatively  free ; 
and,  if  thoughtful,  he  had  time  to  think.  Slaves  are 
generally  expected  to  sing  as  well  as  to  work.  A  si- 
lent slave  is  not  liked  by  masters  or  overseers.  'Make 
anoise^  '■make  a  noise'  and  'hear  a  hand,''  are  the 
words  usually  addressed  to  the  slaves  when  there  is 
silence  amongst  them.  This  may  account  for  the  al- 
most constant  singing  heard  in  the  southern  states. 
There  was  generally  more  or  less  singing  among  the 
teamsters,  as  it  was  one  means  of  letting  the  overseer 
know  where  they  were,  and  that  they  were  moving 
on  with  the  work.  But  on  allowance  day,  those  who 
visited  the  great  house  farm  were  peculiarly  excited 
and  noisy.  While  on  their  way,  they  would  make  the 
dense  old  woods,  for  miles  around,  reverberate  with 
their  wild  notes.     These  were  not  always  merry  be- 


THE  MELANCHOLY  OF  SLAVE  SONGS.       395 

cause  they  were  wild.  On  the  contrary,  they  were 
mostly  of  a  plaintive  cast,  and  told  a  tale  of  grief  and 
sorrow.  In  the  most  boisterous  outbursts  of  raptur- 
ous sentiment,  there  was  ever  a  tinge  of  deep  melan- 
choly. I  have  never  heard  any  songs  like  those  any- 
where since  I  left  slavery,  except  when  in  Ireland. 
There  I  heard  the  same  loailing  notes^  and  was  much 
affected  by  them.  It  was  during  the  famine  of  1845 
-6.  In  all  the  songs  of  the  slaves  there  was  ever 
some  expression  in  praise  of  the  great  house  farm ; 
something  which  would  flatter  the  pride  of  the  owner 
and  possibly,  draw  a  favorable  glance  from  him. 

"I  am  going  away  to  ihe.  great  house  farm, 

O  yea !  0  yea !  0  yea ! 
My  old  master  is  a  good  old  master, 

O  yea !  0  yea !  0  yea ! 

"I  did  not,  when  a  slave,  understand  the  deep 
meanings  of  those  rude,  and  apparently  incoherent 
songs.  I  was  myself  within  the  circle,  so  that  I  neith- 
er saw  nor  heard  as  those  without  might  see  and  hear. 
They  told  a  tale  which  was  then  altogether  beyond 
my  feeble  comprehension;  they  were  tones,  loud, 
long  and  deep,  breathing  the  prayer  and  complaint  of 
souls  boiling  over  with  the  bitterest  anguish.  Every 
tone  was  a  testimony  against  slavery,  and  a  prayer  to 
God  for  deliverance  fi'om  chains.  The  hearing  of 
those  wild  notes  always  depressed  my  spirits,  and  filled 
my  heart  with  ineffable  sadness.  The  mere  recur- 
rence, even  now,  afflicts  my  spirit,  and  while  I  am 
writing  these  lines,  my  tears  are  falling.  To  those 
songs  I  trace  my  first  glimmering  conceptions  of  the 


396  FREDERICK    DOUGLASS. 

dehumanizing  character  of  slavery.  I  can  never  get 
rid  of  that  conception.  Those  songs  still  follow  me, 
to  deepen  my  hatred  of  slavery,  and  quicken  my  sym- 
pathies for  my  brethren  in  bonds." 

When  Douglass  was  ten  years  old  a  great  change 
took  place  in  his  circumstances.  His  old  master  sent 
him  to  Baltimore  to  be  a  family  servant  in  the  house 
of  a  family  connection. 

He  speaks  with  great  affection  of  his  new  mistress, 
Miss  Sophia  Aulji.  It  is  the  southern  custom  for  the 
slave  to  address  a  young  married  lady  always  by  this 
maiden  title.  She  had  never  before  had  to  do  with 
a  slave  child,  and  seemed  to  approach  him  with  all  the 
tender  feelings  of  motherhood.  He  was  to  have  the 
care  of  her  own  little  son,  some  years  younger,  and 
she  seemed  to  extend  maternal  tenderness  to  him. 
His  clothing,  lodging,  food  were  all  now  those  of  a 
favored  house  boy,  and  his  employment  to  run  of  er- 
rands and  take  care  of  his  little,  charge,  of  whom  he 
was  very  fond.  The  kindness  and  benignity  of  his 
mistress  led  the  little  boy  to  beg  her  to  teach  him  to 
read,  and  the  results  are  thus  given : 

"The  dear  woman  began  the  task,  and  very  soon, 
by  her  assistance,  I  was  master  of  the  alphabet,  and 
could  spell  words  of  three  or  four  letters.  My  mis- 
tress seemed  almost  as  proud  of  my  progress,  as  if  I 
had  been  her  own  child ;  and  supposing  that  her  hus- 
band would  be  as  well  pleased,  she  made  no  secret  of 
what  she  was  doing  for  me.  Indeed,  she  exultingly 
told  him  of  the  aptness  of  her  pupil,  of  her  intention 
to  persevere  in  teaching  me,  and  of  the  duty  which 
she  felt  it  to  teach  me  at  least  to  read  the  Bible.    Here 


MASTER   HUGH    ON    TEACHING  SLAVES.  397 

arose  the  first  cloud  over  my  Baltimore  prospects,  tlie 
precursor  of  drenching  rains  and  chilling  blasts. 

"Master  Hugh  was  amazed  at  the  simplicity  of  his 
spouse,  and  probably  for  the  first  time,  he  unfolded  to 
her  the  true  philosophy  of  slavery,  and  the  peculiar 
rules  necessary  to  be  observed  by  masters  and  mis- 
tresses, in  the  management  of  their  human  chattels. 
Mr.  Auld  promptly  forbade  the  continuance  of  her  in- 
struction ;  telling  her,  in  the  first  place,  that  the  thing 
itself  was  unlawful ;  that  it  was  also  unsafe,  and  could 
only  lead  to  mischief  To  use  his  own  words,  further, 
he  said,  '  If  you  give  a  nigger  an  inch,  he  will  take 
an  ell ;  he  should  know  nothing  but  the  will  of  his 
master,  and  learn  to  obey  it.  Learning  would  spoil 
the  best  nigger  in  the  world ;  if  you  teach  that  nigger' 
— speaking  of  myself — 'how  to  read  the  Bible,  there 
will  be  no  keeping  him ;  it  would  forever  unfit  him 
for  the  duties  of  a  slave,  and  as  to  himself,  learnins" 
would  do  him  no  good,  but  probably  a  great  deal  of 
harm — making  him  disconsolate  and  unhappy.  If 
you  learn  him  now  to  read,  he'll  want  to  know  how 
to  write  ;  and  this  accomplished,  he'll  be  running  away 
with  himself  Such  was  the  tenor  of  Master  Hugh's 
oracular  exposition  of  the  true  philosophy  of  training 
a  human  chattel ;  and  it  must  be  confessed  that  he 
very  clearly  comprehended  the  nature  and  the  require- 
ments of  the  relation  of  master  and  slave.  His  dis- 
course was  the  first  decidedly  anti-slavery  lecture  to 
which  it  had  been  my  lot  to  listen,  Mrs.  Auld  evi- 
dently felt  the  force  of  his  remarks ;  and,  like  an  obe- 
dient wife,  began  to  shape  her  course  in  the  direction 
indicated  by  her  husband.  The  effect  of  his  words 
25 


398  FREDERICK    DOUGLASS. 

on  me  was  neither  sliglit  nor  transitory.  His  iron  sen- 
tences, cold  and  harsh,  sunk  deep  into  my  heart,  and 
stirred  up  not  only  my  feelings  into  a  sort  of  rebellion, 
but  awakened  within  me  a  slumbering  train  of  vital 
thought.  It  was  a  new  and  special  revelation,  dispel- 
ling a  painful  mystery,  against  which  my  youthful  un- 
derstanding had  struggled,  and  struggled  in  vain,  to 
wit :  the  ivMte  man's  power  to  perpetuate  the  enslave- 
ment of  the  black  man.  'Very  well,'  thought  I, 
'knowledge  unfits  a  child  to  be  a  slave.'  I  instinct- 
ively assented  to  the  proposition ;  and  from  that  mo- 
ment I  understood  the  direct  pathway  from  slavery  to 
freedom." 

But  the  desire  of  learning,  once  awakened,  could  not 
be  hushed,  and  though  Douglass'  mistress  forebore  his 
teaching,  and  even  became  jealously  anxious  to  pre- 
vent his  making  further  progress,  he  found  means  to 
continue  the  instruction.  With  a  spelling-book  hid 
away  in  his  bosom,  and  a  few  crackers  in  his  pocket, 
he  continued  to  get  daily  lessons  from  the  street  boys 
at  intervals  when  he  went  back  and  forth  on  errands. 
Sometimes  the  tuition  fee  was  a  cracker,  and  sometimes 
the  lesson  was  given  in  mere  boyish  good  will.  At 
last  he  made  money  enough  to  buy  for  himself,  secret- 
ly, a  reading  book,  "The  Columbian  Orator."  This 
book  was  prepared  for  schools  during  the  liberty -loving 
era  succeeding  the  American  revolution,  when  south- 
ern as  well  as  northern  men  conspired  to  reprobate 
slavery.  There  consequently  young  Fred  found  most 
inspiring  documents.  There  was  a  long  conversation 
between  a  master  and  a  slave  where  a  slave  defended 
Jiimself  for  running  away  by  quoting  the  language  of 


EFFECTS    OF    LEARNING    TO  READ.  399 

the  Declaration  of  Independence.     Douglass  also  says 
of  this  book : 

"  This,  however,  was  not  all  the  fanaticism  which  I 
found  in  this  Columbian  Orator.  I  met  there  one  of 
Sheridan's  mighty  speeches  on  the  subject  of  Catholic 
Emancipation,  Lord  Chatham's  speech  on  the  Ameri- 
can war,  and  speeches  by  the  great  "William  Pitt  and 
by  Fox.  These  were  all  choice  documents  to  me,  and 
I  read  them  over  and  over  again,  with  an  interest  that 
was  ever  increasing,  because  it  was  ever  gaining  in 
intelligence ;  for  the  more  I  read  them  the  better  I 
understood  them.  The  reading  of  these  speeches  ad- 
ded much  to  my  limited  stock  of  language,  and  ena- 
bled me  to  give  tongue  to  many  interesting  thoughts, 
which  had  frequently  flashed  through  my  soul,  and 
died  away  for  want  of  utterance." 

All  this  knowledge  and  expansion  of  mind,  of 
course  produced  at  first  intellectual  gloom  and  mis- 
ery. All  the  results  of  learning  to  read,  predicted  by 
the  master,  had  come  to  pass.  He  was  so  morose,  so 
changed,  that  his  mistress  noticed  it,  and  showered  re- 
proaches upon  him  for  his  ingratitude.  "  Poor  lady," 
he  says,  "she  did  not  know  my  trouble  and  I  dared 
not  tell  her — her  abuse  felt  like  the  blows  of  Balaam 
on  his  poor  ass,  she  did  not  know  that  an  angel  stood 
in  the  way  " 

"  My  feelings  were  not  the  result  of  any  marked  cru- 
elty in  the  treatment  T  received ;  they  sprung  from  the 
consideration  of  my  being  a  slave  at  all.  It  was  slavery 
— not  its  mere  incidents — that  I  hated.  I  had  been 
cheated.  I  saw  through  the  attempt  to  keep  me  in 
ignorance  ;  I  saw  that  slaveholders  would  have  gladly 


400  FREDERICK   DOUGLASS. 

made  me  believe  that  they  were  merely  acting  under 
the  authority  of  God,  in  making  a  slave  of  me,  and 
in  making  slaves  of  others ;  and  I  treated  them  as  rob- 
bers and  deceivers.  The  feeding  and  clothing  me  well, 
could  not  atone  for  taking  my  liberty  from  me." 

About  this  time  Douglass  became  deeply  awakened 
to  religious  things,  by  the  prayers  and  exhortations  of 
a  pious  old  colored  slave  who  was  a  drayman.  He 
could  read  and  his  friend  could  not,  but  Douglass,  now 
newly  awakened  to  spiritual  things,  read  the  Bible  to 
him,  and  received  comfort  from  him.  He  says,  "  He 
fanned  my  already  intense  love  of  knowledge  into  a 
flame  by  assuring  me  that  I  was  to  be  a  useful  man  in 
the  world.  When  I  would  say  to  him,  how  can  these 
things  be,  his  simple  reply  was,  Hrust  in  the  Lord? 
When  I  told  him  that  I  was  a  slave  for  life,  he  said  : 
'  The  Lord  can  make  you  free,  my  dear.  All  things 
are  possible  with  him,  only  have  faith  in  God.  If 
you  want  your  liberty,  ask  the  Lord  for  it  in  faith,  and 
HE  WILL  GIVE  IT  TO  YOU.' "  Cheered  by  this  advice,  Doug- 
lass began  to  offer  daily  and  earnest  prayers  for  liberty. 

With  reference  to  this  he  begai;!  to  turn  his  thoughts 
towards  acquiring  the  art  of  writing.  He  was  em- 
ployed as  waiter  in  a  ship  yard,  and  watching  the  in- 
itial letters  by  which  the  carpenters  marked  the  dif- 
ferent parts  of  the  ship,  and  thus  in  time  acquired  a 
large  part  of  the  written  alphabet.  This  knowledge 
he  supplemented  by  getting  one  and  another  boy  of 
his  acquaintance  on  one  pretence  or  other,  to  write 
words  or  letters  on  fences  or  boards.  Then  he  surrep- 
titiously copied  the  examples  in  his  little  master's  copy- 
book at  home,  when  his  mistress  was  safely  out  of  the 


DOUGLASS   HIRES   fflS   TIME ABSCONDS.  401 

house,  and  finally  acquired  the  dangerous  and. forbid- 
den gift  of  writing  a  fluent,  handsome  current  hand. 

He  had  various  reverses  after  this  as  he  grew  in  age 
and  developed  in  manliness.  He  was  found  difi&cult 
to  manage,  and  changed  from  hand  to  hand  like  a  vic- 
ious intractable  horse.  Once  a  celebrated  negro 
breaker  had  a  hand  upon  him,  meaning  to  break  his 
will  and  reduce  him  to  the  condition  of  a  contented 
animal,  but  the  old  story  of  Pegasus  in  harness  came 
to  pass.  The  negro  breaker  gave  him  up  as  a  bad 
case,  and  finally  his  master  made  a  virtue  of  necessity, 
and  allowed  him  to  hire  his  own  time.  The  bargain 
was  that  Douglass  should  pay  him  three  dollars  a  week, 
and  make  his  own  bargains,  find  his  own  tools,  board 
and  clothe  himself  The  work  was  that  of  caulker  in 
a  ship  yard.  This,  he  says,  was  a  hard  bargain  ;  for  the 
wear  and  tear  of  clothing,  the  breakage  of  tools  and 
expenses  of  board  made  it  necessary  to  earn  at  least 
six  dollars  a  week,  to  keep  even  with  the  world,  and 
this  per  centage  to  the  master  left  him  nothing  beyond 
a  bare  living. 

But  it  was  a  freeman's  experience  to  be  able  to  come 
and  go  unwatched,  and  before  long  it  enabled  him  to 
mature  a  plan  of  escape,  and  the  time  at  last  came 
when  he  found  himself  a  free  colored  citizen  of  New 
Bedford,  seeking  employment,  with  the  privilege  of 
keeping  his  wages  for  himself  Here,  it  was  that  read- 
ing for  the  first  time  the  Lady  of  the  Lake,  he  gave 
himself  the  name  of  Douglass,  and  abandoned  for- 
ever the  family  name  of  his  old  slaveholding  employer. 
Instead  of  a  lazy  thriftless  young  ijian  to  be  supported 


402  FREDERICK   DOUGLASS. 

by  liis  earnings,  lie  took  unto  himself  an  affectionate 
and  thrifty  wife,  and  became  a  settled  family  man. 

He  describes  the  seeking  for  freeman's  work  as  rap- 
turous excitement.  The  thought  "  I  can  work,  I  can 
earn  money,  I  have  no  master  now  to  rob  me  of  my 
earnings,"  was  a  perfect  joyous  stimulus  whenever  it 
arose,  and  he  says,  "I  sawed  wood,  dug  cellars,  shov- 
eled coal,  rolled  oil  casks  on  the  wharves,  helped  to 
load  and  unload  vessels,  worked  in  candle  works  and 
brass  foundries,  and  thus  supported  myself  for  three 
years.  I  was,  he  says,  now  living  in  a  new  world,  and 
wide  awake  to  its  advantages.  I  early  began  to  at- 
tend meetings  of  the  colored  people,  in  New  Bedford, 
and  to  take  part  in  them,  and  was  amazed  to  see 
colored  men  making  speeches,  drawing  up  resolutions, 
and  offering  them  for  consideration." 

His  enthusiasm  for  self-education  was  constantly  stim- 
ulated. He  appropriated  some  of  his  first  earnings  to 
subscribing  for  the  Liberator,  and  was  soon  after  intro- 
duced to  Mr.  Garrison.  How  Garrison  appeared  to  a 
liberated  slave  may  be  a  picture  worth  preserving, 
and  we  give  it  in  Douglass'  own  words. 

"  Seventeen  years  ago,  few  men  possessed  a  more 
heavenly  countenance  than  William  Lloyd  Garrison, 
and  few  men  evinced  a  more  genuine  or  a  more  ex- 
alted piety.  The  Bible  was  his  text  book — held  sa- 
cred, as  the  word  of  the  Eternal  Father — sinless  per- 
fection— complete  submission  to  insults  and  injuries — 
literal  obedience  to  the  injunction,  if  smitten  on  one 
side  to  turn  the  other  also.  Not  only  was  Sunday  a 
Sabbath,  but  all  days  were  Sabbaths,  and  to  be  kept 
holy.     All  sectarism  false  and  mischievous — the  regen- 


MR.    DOUGLASS'    LITERARY    CAREER.  403 

erated,  througliout  tlie  world,  members  of  one  bodj, 
and  tlie  Head  Jesus  Christ.  Prejudice  against  color 
was  rebellion  against  God.  Of  all  men  beneath  the 
sky,  the  slaves,  because  most  neglected  and  despised, 
were  nearest  and  dearest  to  his  great  heart.  Those 
ministers  who  defended  slavery  from  the  Bible,  were  of 
their  'father  the  devil;'  and  those  churches  which 
fellowshipped  slaveholders  as  Christians,  were  syna- 
gogues of  Satan,  and  our  nation  was  a  nation  of  liars. 
Never  loud  or  noisy — calm  and  serene  as  a  summer  sky, 
and  as  pure.  '  You  are  the  man,  the  Moses,  raised  up 
by  God,  to  deliver  his  modern  Israel  from  bondage,' 
was  the  spontaneous  feeling  of  my  heart,  as  I  sat  away 
back  in  the  hall  and  listened  to  his  mighty  words ; 
mighty  in  truth — mighty  in  their  simple  earnestness." 

From  this  time  the  course  of  Douglass  is  upward. 
The  manifest  talents  which  he  possessed,  led  the  friends 
of  the  Anti- Slavery  cause  to  feel  that  he  could  serve  it 
better  in  a  literary  career  than  by  manual  labor. 

In  the  year  1841,  a  great  anti-slavery  convention 
was  held  at  Nantucket,  where  Frederick  Douglass  ap- 
peared on  the  stage  and  before  a  great  audience  re- 
counted his  experiences.  Mi*.  Garrison  followed  him, 
and  an  immense  enthusiasm  was  excited — and  Doug- 
lass says  :  '  That  night  there  were  at  least  a  thousand 
Garrisonians  in  Nantucket."  After  this  the  general 
agent  of  the  Anti-Slavery  Society  came  and  offered  to 
Douglass  the  position  of  an  agent  of  that  society,  with 
a  competent  support  to  enable  him  to  lecture  through 
the  country.  Douglass,  continually  pursuing  the  work 
of  self-education,  became  an  accomplished  speaker  and 
writer.     He  visited  England,  and  was  received  with 


404  FREDERICK   DOUGLASS. 

great  enthusiasm.  The  interest  excited  in  him  was  so 
great  that  several  English  friends  united  and  paid  the 
sum  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  pounds  sterling,  for  the 
purchase  of  his  liberty.  This  enabled  him  to  pursue  his 
work  of  lecturer  in  the  United  States,  to  travel  unmo- 
lested, and  to  make  himself  every  way  conspicuous 
without  danger  of  recapture. 

He  settled  himself  in  Rochester,  and  established  an 
Anti-Slavery  paper,  called  Frederick  Douglass'  Paper, 
which  bore  a  creditable  character  for  literary  execu- 
tion, and  had  a  good  number  of  subscribers  in  Amer- 
ica and  England. 

Two  of  Frederick  Douglass'  sons  were  among  the 
first  to  answer  to  the  call  for  colored  troops,  and  fought 
bravely  in  the  good  cause.  Douglass  has  succeeded  in 
rearing  an  intelligent  and  cultivated  family,  and  in 
placing  himself  in  the  front  rank  among  intelligent 
and  cultivated  men.  Few  orators  among  us  surpass 
him,  and  his  history  from  first  to  last,  is  a  comment  on 
the  slavery  system  which  speaks  for  itself. 


*Vav„l  by-A.H.Bi!-=i"' 


^^ 


^^f^::^^^^ 


CHAPTER    XIII. 

PHILIP    H.    SHEEIDAN. 

Sheridan  a  FuU-Blooded  Irishman — The  Runaway  Horse — Constitutional  Fear- 
lessness— Sheridan  Goes  to  West  Point — Sheridan's  Apprcnticesliip  to  War — 
The  Fight  with  the  Apaches  at  Fort  Duncan — He  is  TransfciTcd  to  Oregon — 
Commands  at  Fort  Yamhill  in  the  Yokima  R&fervation — The  Quanel  among 
tlie  Yokimas — Sheridan  Popular  with  Indians — He  thinks  he  has  a  Chance  to 
be  Major  Some  Day — Sheridan's  Shyness  with  Ladies — He  Employs  a  Sut)sti- 
tute  in  Waiting  on  a  Lady — Sheridan's  Kindness  and  Efficiency  in  Office  Work 

— He  Becomes  a  Colonel  of  Cavalry — His  Shrewd  Defeat  of  Gen.  Chalmers 

Becomes  Brigadier— The  Kentucky  Campaign  against  Bragg — Sheridan  Saves 
the  Batt'.e  of  Perrysville — Savea  the  Battle  of  Murfrecsboro — Gen.  Kousseau  on 
Sheridan's  Fighting — Sheridan  at  Missionary  Ridge — Joins  Grant  as  Chief  of 
Cavalry— His  Raids  around  Lee— His  Campaign  in  the  Valley  of  Vir-iiuia — 
He  Moves  across  and  Joins  in  the  Final  Operations — His  Ailministration  at 
New  Orleans — Grant's  Opinion  of  Sheridan. 

Major- General  Philip  Henry  Sheridan  is  a  full- 
blooded  Irishman  by  descent,  though  American  by- 
birth.  He  was  born  in  poverty.  So  large  a  share  of 
American  eminent  men  have  been  born  poor,  that  it 
might  almost  be  said  that  in  our  country  poverty  in 
youth  is  the  first  requisite  for  success  in  life. 

Sheridan's  parents,  after  remaining  a  few  years  at 
the  east,  moved  to  Ohio,  where  their  son  grew  up 
with  very  little  schooling,  and  under  the  useful  neces- 
sity of  working  for  a  living.  There  is  a  story  current 
of  his  having  been  put  upon  a  spirited  horse  when  a 
boy  of  five,  by  some  mischievous  mates,  and  run  away 
with  to  a  tavern  some  miles  off  He  stuck  fast  to  the 
horse,  though  without  saddle  or  bridle,  and  without 
size  or  strength  to  use  them  if  he  had  them.     It  was 

405 


406  PHILIP   H.    SHERIDAN. 

by  a  mere  cliance  that  lie  arrived  safe,  and  when 
lifted  off  by  the  sympathizing  family  of  the  inn,  the 
little  fellow  admitted  that  he  was  shaken  and  sore  with 
his  ride,  but  he  added,  "I'll  be  better  to-morrow,  and 
thenril  ride  hack  home.''^  The  incident  is  of  no  great 
importance  in  itself,  but  it  shows  that  even  then  the 
boy  was  already  constitutionally  destitute  of  fear.  He 
seems  to  have  been  made  without  the  peculiar  faculty 
which  makes  people  take  danger  into  the  account,  and 
try  to  keep  at  a  distance  from  it.  The  full  possession 
of  this  deficiency  (if  the  phrase  is  not  too  direct  a 
contradiction  in  terms,)  is  quite  uncommon.  Admiral 
Nelson  had  it,  as  was  shown,  very  much  in  Sheridan's 
own  style,  in  his  boyhood.  The  future  victor  of  Traf- 
algar had  strayed  away  from  home,  and  got  lost. 
When  he  had  been  found  and  taken  home,  a  relative 
remarked,  "I  should  have  thought  that  fear  would 
have  kept  you  from  going  so  far  away."  "Fear?" 
said  the  young  gentleman  quite  innocently ;  "  Fear  ? 
I  don't  know  him !  "  He  never  afterwards  made  his 
acquaintance,  either ;  nor,  it  would  seem,  has  Sheri- 
dan. 

When  young  Sheridan  received  his  appointment  to 
a  cadetship  at  West  Point,  he  was  driving  a  water-cart 
in  Zanesville,  Ohio.  The  person  who  actually  pro- 
cured the  appointment  was  Gen.  Thomas  P.  Ritchey, 
member  of  Congress  from  Sheridan's  district.  The 
candidate  was  very  young  for  the  appointment,  and 
very  small  of  his  age,  insomuch  that  his  friends  con- 
sidered it  extremely  doubtful  whether  he  would  be 
admitted.  He  was,  however,  and  passed  through  the 
regular  West  Point  course,  in  the  same  class  with  Gen' 


SHERIDAX'S   APPRENTICESHIP.  407 

erals  McPherson,  Scofielcl,  Terrill,  Sill  and  Tyler,  and 
with  the  rebel  general  Hood,  who  was  so  fearfully 
beaten  by  Thomas  at  Nashville.  His  scholarship  was 
not  particularly  remarkable,  and  as  is  often  the  case 
with  pupils  who  have  no  particular  want  of  courage, 
high  health  and  spirits,  or  of  the  bodily  and  mental 
qualities  for  doing  things  rather  than  for  thinking 
about  it,  he  experienced  vaiious  collisions  of  one  and 
another  kind,  with  the  strict  military  discipline  of  the 
institution. 

He  graduated  in  June,  1853,  and  as  there  was  at 
the  moment  no  vacant  second  lieutenancy,  he  was  given 
a  brevet  appointment,  and  sent  out  in  the  next  autumn 
to  Fort  Duncan  on  the  Rio  Grande,  at  the  western 
edge  of  Texas,  and  in  the  region  haunted  by  two  of 
the  most  ferocious  and  boldest  of  the  tribes  sometimes 
called  on  the  frontier  the  "horse  Indians" — the  Apa- 
ches and  Camanches. 

From  this  time  until  the  rebellion.  Lieutenant  Sher- 
idan was  serving,  not  exactly  his  apprenticeship  to  his 
trade  of  war,  but  what  would  in  Germany  be  called 
his  luanderjdhre — his  years  as  wandering  journeyman. 
It  was  an  eight  years  of  training  in  hardships  and 
dangers  more  incessant  and  more  extreme  than  per- 
haps could  be  crowded  into  any  life  except  this  of  the 
American  Indfan-fighter ;  and  doubtless  its  wild  expe- 
riences did  much  to  develop  the  bodily  and  mental 
endurance  and  the  coolness  and  swift  energy  which 
have  characterized  Sheridan  as  a  commander. 

For  two  years  Sheridan  was  at  Fort  Duncan,  and  - 
was  then  promoted  to  first  lieutenant,  transferred  to 
the  Fourth  Regiment,  and  after  some  delay  in  New 


408  PHILIP  H.    SHERIDAN. 

York  waiting  for  some  recruits,  he  accompanied  tliem 
by  sea  to  the  Pacific  coast,  and  immediately  on  reach- 
ing San  Francisco  was  placed  in  command  of  the 
escort  for  a  surveying  expedition  employed  on  a 
branch  of  the  Pacific  Railroad.  On  this  duty,  and 
afterwards  in  command  of  posts  or  on  scouts  and  ex- 
peditions up  and  down  those  remote  and  wild  regions, 
the  time  passed  until  the  outbreak  of  the  war  in  1861. 

In  the  fights  and  adventures  of  this  rough  life, 
Sheridan's  soldierly  qualities  were  often  exhibited. 
While  at  Fort  Duncan,  being  outside  the  fort  with 
two  men,  the  three  were  surprised  by  a  gang  of  a 
dozen  or  more  Apaches,  whose  chief,  taking  it  for 
granted  that  the  three  had  surrendered,  jumped  down 
from  his  horse,  to  tie  them  up  and  have  them  carried 
off.  As  he  did  so,  Sheridan,  quick  as  lightning,  sprang 
up  in  his  place,  and  goaded  the  wild  mustang  at  full 
speed  to  the  fort.  On  reaching  it,  he  called  instantly 
to  arms,  snatched  a  pair  of  pistols,  and  without  dis- 
mounting or  waiting  to  see  who  followed,  wheeled 
and  flew  back  as  swiftly  as  he  had  come.  His  two 
men  were  fighting  stoutly  for  their  lives.  Sheridan 
dashed  up  and  shot  the  chief  The  soldiers,  following 
hard  after  him,  charged  the  savages,  and  in  a  moment 
the  discomfited  Apaches  were  ridden  down,  dispersed 
and  most  of  them  killed. 

During  Sheridan's  stay  in  Oregon,  his  commanding 
officer,  Major  Rains,  (afterwards  the  rebel  General 
Rains,)  made  a  campaign  against  the  Yokima  Indians, 
in  which  Sheridan  did  right  good  service,  and  so  con- 
spicuously at  the  affair  of  the  Cascades  on  the  Co- 
lumbia, April  28,  1856,  as  to  be  mentioned  in  general 


THE   FIGHT   AMONG    THE   YOKIMAS.  409 

orders  with  high  praise.     The  Indians  having  been 
subdued,  were  placed  on  a  tract  called  the  Yokima 
Reservation,  and  Sheridan  was  appointed  to  command 
a  detachment  of  troops  posted  among  them,  to  act 
substantially  as  their  governor.     He   erected  a  post 
called  Fort  Yamhill,   and  remained  there  for  two  or 
three  years,  ruling  his  wild  subjects  with  a  good  deal 
of  success,  and  being  quite  popular  with  them,  as  well 
as  praised  and  trusted  by  his  own  superiors.     An  eye- 
witness has  told  the  story  of  an  occurrence  at  Fort  Yam- 
hill, a  good  deal  hke  the  affair  of  the  Apaches  at  Fort 
Duncan,  and  which  equally  illustrates  the  swift  and  ve- 
hement courage  with  which  Sheridan  always  does  his 
soldier's  work".     One  day  a  quarrel  arose  in  the  camp 
of  the  Yokimas,   outside   the   fort.     These   turbulent 
savages  have  no  more  self-control  than  so  many  tigers, 
and  in  a  moment  their  knives  were  out,  and  a  bloody 
battle-royal  was  opened.     Sheridan  was  near  enough 
to  see  that  there  was  a  fight,  but   happened   to  be 
alone.     He  put  spurs  to  his  horse,  hurried  to  the  fort, 
ordered  what  few   soldiers  were  in  sight  to   follow 
him,  turned,    set  spurs  to  his  horse  again,  and   dash- 
ed off  for   the   Indian  camp   at  the   very  top  of  his 
speed;  bare  headed,  sword  in  hand,  ivithout  once  look- 
ing round  to  see  if  lie  were  followed ;  and  he  charged 
headlong  into  the  fray,  riding  through  the  desperate 
Indian  knife-fight  as  though  it  were  a  field  of  standing 
grain.     The  soldiers  felt  the  powerful  magnetism  of 
their  leader,  just  as  Sheridan's  soldiers  have  always 
felt  it;  and,  our  informanu  said,   every  man  of  them 
drove  on,  just  like  his  leader,  without  looking  behind 
to  see  if  anybody  followed.     In  they  went,   striking 


410  PHILIP    H.    SHERIDAN. 

right  and  left,  and  in  a  moment  or  two,  they  had 
charged  once  or  twice  through  the  fight,  and  it  was 
quelled. 

Sheridan  was  an  efficient  manager  of  these  Indians, 
and  was  popular  with  them,  too.  Their  wild,  keen 
instincts  appreciate  courage  and  energy,  sense  and 
kindness,  quite  as  readily  as  do  civilized  men. 

When  the  rebellion  broke  out,  Sheridan  was  ordered 
East,  and  on  May  14,  1861,  was  commissioned  captain 
in  the  Thirteenth  Regular  Infantry.  He  was  soon 
sent  to  Missouri,  where  his  first  actual  service  in  the 
war  was  a  term  of  office  as  president  of  a  board  for 
auditing  military  claims.  He  was  soon,  however,  sent 
into  the  field  as  chief  quartermaster  and  commissary 
under  Gen.  Curtis,  and  in  that  capacity  served  through 
the  brilliant  and  victorious,  but  terribly  severe  cam- 
paign in  which  the  desperate  battle  of  Pea  Ridge  was 
fought.  At  this  time  his  professional  ambition  was 
not  very  high,  for  he  observed  one  day  that  "he  was 
the  sixty-fourth  captain  on  the  list,  and  with  the  chan- 
ces of  war  might  soon  be  a  major." 

Sheridan  is,  however,  thoroughly  modest,  and  among 
ladies  is — or  was — even  excessively  bashful.  There 
is  an  amusing  story  on  this  point  about  this  very  cam- 
paign. It  is,  that  Sheridan,  too  bashful  to  seek  for 
himself  the  company  of  a  certain  young  lady  near 
Springfield,  used  to  furnish  a  horse  and  carriage  to  a 
smart  young  clerk  of  his,  conditionally  that  the  said 
clerk  should  take  the  young  lady  out  to  drive  and  en- 
tertain her — very  much  as  Captain  Miles  Standish  is 
said  to  have  once  deputed  John  Alden  on  a  similar 
errand.     The  clerk  did  so,  while  Captain  Sheridan 


KINDNESS   AND    EFFICIENCY   IN   OFFICE    WORK.       4ll 

stood  in  the  door  and  experienced  a  shy  delight  in 
seeing  how  well  the  substitute  did  duty.  No  end  is 
known  for  this  story — except,  indeed,  that  Captain 
Sheridan  did  not  marry  the  lady. 

There  are  on  record  some  reminiscences  of  Sheri- 
dan's character  as  an  officer  in  this  campaign,  which 
paint  him  in  ^  very  agreeable  light,  as  at  once  ener- 
getic and  thorough  in  duty,  and  kindly  in  feeling  and 
manner.     It  was  a  fellow-officer  who  thus  wrote : 

"The  enlisted  men  on  duty  at  headquarters,  or  in 
his  own  bureau,  remember  him  kindly.  Not  a  clerk 
or  orderly  but  treasures  some  act  of  kindness  done  by 
Captain  Sheridan.  Never  forgetting,  nor  allowing 
others  to  forget,  the  respect  due  to  him  and  his  posi- 
tion, he  was  yet  the  most  approachable  officer  at  head- 
quarters. His  knowledge  of  the  regulations  and  cus- 
toms of  the  army,  and  of  all  professional  minutiae, 
were  ever  at  the  disposal  of  any  proper  inquirer. 
Private  soldiers  are  seldom  allowed  to  carry  away  as 
pleasant  and  kindly  recollections  of  a  superior  as  those 
with  which  Captain  Sheridan  endowed  us.  *  *  * 
No  man  has  risen  more  rapidly  with  less  jealousy,  if 
the  feelings  entertained  by  his  old  associates  of  the 
Army  of  the  Southwest  are  any  criterion." 

Sheridan's  next  service  was  as  General  Ilalleck's 
chief  quartermaster  in  the  Corinth  campaign.  Halleck 
seems  to  have  thought  very  well  of  Sheridan  from  the 
first,  th'ough  apparently  rather  as  a  trustworthy  organ- 
izer and  manager,  than  as  such  a  military  son  of  thun- 
der as  he  has  turned  out  to  be.  After  a  time  the  na- 
ture of  the  war  in  those  parts  occasioned  a  great  de- 
mand for  cavahy  officers,  and  Sheridan  being  pitched 


412  PHILIP   H.    SHERIDAN. 

npon  for  one,  was  on  May  27,  1862,  commissioned 
colonel  of  the  2d  Michigan  Cavalry,  and  was  at  once 
sent  into  the  field  to  help  impede  the  retreat  of  the 
rebels  when  they  should  evacuate  Corinth, 

In  this  and  other  similar  work  of  that  campaign,  Sher- 
idan became  at  once  known  to  the  army  and  to  his  su- 
periors as  a  splendid  officer,  and  from  that  time  forward 
he  rose  and  rose,  up  to  the  very  last  scene  of  the  Vir- 
ginia campaign,  where  he  wielded  the  troops  that 
struck  the  most  telling  of  the  final  blows  against  Lee. 

His  first  important  service  was  to  take  part  in  Elli- 
ott's Booneville  expedition.  In  June  he  had  a  cavalry 
combat  with  the  butcher  Forrest,  and  beat  him,  and 
was  made  acting  brigadier.  In  July,  having  two  reg- 
iments with  him,  he  was  attacked  by  the  rebel  Chal- 
mers with  six  thousand  men.  Sheridan's  position  was 
strong  enough,  but  he  saw  that  he  would  shortly  be 
surrounded  and  starved  out  by  mere  weight  of  num- 
bers. So  he  contrived  a  neat  and  effective  surprise  ; 
risky,  it  is  true ;  but  it  is  exactly  the  character  of  an 
able  commander  to  take  risks  at  the  right  time,  and 
not  lose.  Sheridan  sent  round  to  the  enemy's  rear,  by 
a  long  detour,  a  force  of  about  ninety  troopers,  witii 
instructions  to  fall  on  at  a  given  time,  when  he  would 
attack  in  concert  with  them.  This  was  done ;  the 
bold  squad  fired  so  fast  from  their  repeating  carbines 
that  the  rebels,  startled  and  perplexed,  could  not  esti- 
mate on  the  probable  number  attacking  them,  and 
were  thrown  into  confusion.  At  this  moment,  Sheri- 
dan charged  in  front  with  his  whole  force,  and  in  his 
own  manner,  and  Chalmers'  men,  instantly  breaking, 
fled  in  total  rout,  and  were  pursued  twenty  miles,  leav- 


SAVES   THE   BATTLE    OF   PERRYSVILLE.  413 

ing  the  whole  road  strewn  with  weapons,  accoutre- 
ments and  baggage  thrown  away  in  their  flight.  Gen- 
eral Grant,  at  this  time  Sheridan's  department  com- 
mander, reported  in  strong  commendation  of  Sheri- 
dan's conduct  in  this  affair,  and  asked  a  brigadier's 
commission  for  him,  which  was  accordingly  given, 
dated  July  15th,  the  day  of  Chalmers'  first  attack. 
Sheridan  seems  to  like  to  be  attacked.  He  is  sure  of 
himself  and  of  his  men,  conscious  of  his  own  coolness, 
view  of  the  field,  recognition  of  the  "critical  five  sec- 
onds," and  promptness  in  moving,  and  he  prepares  a 
return  stroke  apparently  quite  as  gladly  as  he  admin- 
isters a  first  assault. 

When,  in  the  summer  of  1862,  General  Bragg  ad- 
vanced by  a  line  far  east  of  the  Union  forces  in  the 
valley  of  the  Mississippi,  with  the  idea  of  reaching 
the  Ohio,  and  carrying  the  war  into  the  North,  Grant 
sent  Sheridan  to  Buell,  commanding  in  Kentucky,  who 
gave  him  a  division  and  placed  him  in  command  of 
Louisville.  Here  Sheridan  in  one  night  completed  a 
tolerable  line  of  defence,  and  waited  with  confidence 
for  an  attack,  but  Bragg  never  got  so  far.  On  Bragg's 
retreat  was  fought  the  battle  of  Perrysville,  which 
was  given  by  the  rebel  leader  to  gain  time  for  his 
trains  to  escape  from  the  rapid  pursuit  of  the  Union 
army.  In  this  battle,  Sheridan  with  his  division  held 
the  key  of  the  Union  position,  repulsed  several  des- 
perate assaults,  and  twice,  charging  in  his  turn,  drove 
the  rebels  from  their  positions  before  him.  His  divi- 
sion lost  heavily,  but  he  inflicted  heavier  losses  on  the 
rebels,  and  his  prompt  tactics  and  keen  fighting  saved 
the  Union  army  from  defeat. 
26 


414  PHILIP   H.    SHERIDAN. 

In  the  terrible  fight  of  Stone  River,  or  Murfrees- 
boro',  Sheridan's  part,  instead  of  being  merely  credit- 
able or  handsome,  was  glorious  and  decisive.  But  for 
him,  that  great  battle  would  have  been  a  tremendous 
defeat.  How  desperate  the  need  of  the  crisis  that 
Sheridan  met  there,  and  how  well  he  met  it,  may 
somewhat  appear  from  the  terms  used  by  the  best  his- 
torian thus  far  of  that  battle,  in  prefacing  the  detailed 
account  which  he  gives  of  the  fighting  of  Sheridan 
and  his  men.     Mr.  Swinton  says : 

"The  difference  between  troops  is  great;  the  differ- 
ence between  officers  is  immensely  greater.  While 
the  two  right  divisions  of  McCook  were  being  assailed 
and  brushed  away,  an  equal  hostile  pressure  fell  upon 
his  left  division  (Sheridan's).  But  here  a  quite  other 
result  attended  the  enemy's  efforts ;  for  not  only  were 
the  direct  attacks  repulsed  with  great  slaughter,  but 
when  the  flank  of  the  division  was  uncovered  by  the 
withdrawal  of  the  troops  on  its  right,  its  commander 
effecting  a  skilful  change  of  front,  threw  his  men  into 
position  at  right  angles  with  his  former  line,  and  hav- 
ing thus  made  for  himself  a  new  flank,  buffeted  with 
such  determined  vigor  and  such  rapid  turns  of  offence, 
that  for  two  hours  he  held  the  Confederates  at  bay — 
Jiowrs  precious^  priceless^  wrenched  from  fate  and  an 
exultant  foe  hy  the  skill  and  courage  of  this  officer,  and 
bought  by  the  blood  of  his  valiant  men.  This  ofl&cer 
was  Brigadier-General  P.  H.  Sheridan." 

Few  fights  were  ever  more  splendidly  soldierly  than 
this  of  Sheridan's.  We  cannot  detail  it;  but  when 
left  with  his  flank  totally  uncovered,  and  where  he 
would  have  been  perfectly  justified  in  retreating,  he 


SAVES    THE    BATTLE    OF    MURFREESBORO.  415 

changed  front  under  fire — the  most  difficult  of  all  mil- 
itary manoeuvres,  repulsed  the  triumphant  enemy  four 
times,  held  his  ground  until  all  three  of  his  brigade 
commanders  were  shot ;  fought  until  all  his  ammuni- 
tion was  gone,  and  no  more  to  be  had;  then  took  to 
charging  with  the  cold  steel ;  and  when  at  last  he  had 
to  retreat,  he  brought  off  in  good  order  the  force  that 
was  left,  "with  compact  ranks  and  empty  cartridge 
boxes,"  having  lost  seventeen  hundred  and  ninety-six 
brave  men,  and  having  gained  the  time  which  saved 
the  battle ;  and  reporting  to  Rosecrans,  he  said  with 
sorrow,  "Here  is  all  that  are  left."  The  hot  blooded 
Rousseau,  who  had  been  sent  with  his  reserves  into  the 
dark,  close  cedar  thickets  where  Sheridan  was  fighting, 
described  the  scene  in  words  that  enable  the  imagina- 
tion to  conceive  what  must  have  been  the  reality  of 
which  a  soldier  spoke  thus : 

"I  knew  it  was  hell  in  there  before  I  got  in,  but  I 
was  convinced  of  it  when  I  saw  Phil  Sheridan,  with 
hat  in  one  hand  and  sword  in  the  other,  fis-htinsr  as  if 
he  were  the  devil  incarnate,  or  had  a  fresh  indulgence 
from  Father  Tracy  every  five  minutes." 

.Father  Tracy  was  Rosecrans',  chaplain — Rosecrans 
and  Sheridan  both  being  Catholics.  It  may  be  added 
that  those  who  know  Sheridan's  battle  manners,  may 
perhaps  suspect  that  he  needed  indulgence  for  some 
offence  in  words  as  well  as  deeds.  Gen.  Sheridan  was 
made  major-general  for  his  services  at  Murfreesboro'. 

We  cannot  do  more  than  hastily  sum  up  the  later 
and  even  more  brilliant  portion  of  Sheridan's  splendid 
career ;  and  indeed  it  is  so  much  better  known  that 
the  task  is  the  less  needful.     Sheridan  was  active  and 


416  PHILIP    H.    SHERIDAN. 

useful  during  Rosecrans'  advance  on  Chattanooga.  At 
the  defeat  of  Chickamauga,  his  services  were  so  con- 
spicuous in  making  the  best  of  a  bad  matter,  that 
Rosecrans  in  his  report,  "commended  him  to  his  coun- 

try." 

Grant  now  succeeded  Rosecrans,  and  gained  the 
battle  of  Chattanooga,  Monday,  Nov.  23,  1863.  In 
the  storming  of  Missionary  Ridge,  which  was  the  cen- 
tral glory  of  that  fight,  Sheridan  and  his  men  bore  a 
conspicuous  part.  When  Grant  was  made  Lieutenant 
General,  he  quickly  ordered  Sheridan  to  report  at 
Washington.  Sheridan  went,  not  knowing  whether 
for  praise  or  blame,  and  was  placed  in  command  of  all 
the  cavalry  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac.  When 
Grant  crossed  the  Rapidan,  and  began  that  bloody 
and  toilsome,  but  shattering  and  finally  decisive  series 
of  movements  which  ended  with  the  surrender  of  the 
Rebellion,  Sheridan  and  his  horsemen  were  employed 
in  reconnoitering  and  guarding  trains.  May  9th,  he 
set  out  on  a  raid  around  the  rear  of  Lee's  army,  in 
which  he  cut  up  communications,  destroyed  supplies, 
and  rescued  prisoners ;  beat  the  rebel  cavalry,  killing 
tts  leader,  J.  E.  B.  Stuart;  penetrated  within  two 
miles  of  Richmond,  thoroughly  frightening  the  rebel 
capital ;  extricated  his  force  from  a  very  difficult  posi- 
tion on  the  Chickahominy,  by  his  peculiar  style  of 
swift  manoeuvre  and  furious  fighting ;  and  came  safe 
through  at  last  to  Butler's  headquarters. 

On  another  similar  expedition  in  June,  he  severely 
damaged  the  rebel  routes  of  supply  to  Richmond  from 
the  north  and  west ;  and  for  some  time  after  that,  his 
cavalry  were  overrunning  the  country  south  of  Peters- 


SHERIDAN'    IN    THE    VALLEY.  417 

burg  and  Riclimond,  while  Grant  was  establishing  him- 
self in  the  lines  before  Petersburg. 

Sheridan's  great  historic  campaign  in  the  Valley  of 
Virginia  was  the  crowning  glory  of  his  splendid  career 
in  the  war ;  a  career  perhaps  more  brilliant  with  the 
gleams  of  battles  than  that  of  any  other  commander. 
This  fatal  valley  had  from  the  very  beginning  of  the 
war  been  the  opprobrium  of  the  Union  armies.  From  it 
came  General  Johnston  and  those  forces  that  reinforc- 
ed Beauregard  at  Bull  Run,  and  turned  that  hap-haz- 
ard  fight  into  a  victory  for  the  rebels.  Through  it, 
alternating  with  the  ground  east  of  the  Blue  Ridge, 
the  rebels  moved  backward  and  forward,  as  they 
chose,  like  a  checker-player  in  the  "whip-row."  In 
it,  one  Union  commander  after  another  had  been  de- 
feated and  made  to  look  ridiculous ;  and  it  was  the 
road  along  which  every  invasion  of  the  North,  east  of 
the  mountains,  was  laid  out,  as  a  matter  of  course. 

Sheridan  turned  this  den  of  disgraces  into  a  theatre 
all  ablaze  with  victories.  He  was  appointed  to  the 
command  Aug.  7,  1864 ;  for  six  or  seven  weeks  simply 
covered  the  harvests  from  the  rebel  foragers ;  during 
September  was  at  last  given  leave  by  Grant  to  deliver 
battle ;  September  19th,  defeated  Early  at  Winchester; 
September  2 2d,  defeated  him  again  at  Fisher's  Hill, 
whither  he  had  retreated ;  and  when  the  rebel  com- 
mander retreated  again  to  the  far  southern  j)asses  of 
the  Blue  Ridge,  Sheridan  laid  the  southern  part  of  the 
valley  thoroughly  waste,  to  prevent  the  enemy  from 
finding  support  in  it;  on  the  19th  of  October,  after 
his  army  had  been  surprised  by  the  persevering  Early, 
defeated,  and  diiven  in  disorder  five  miles,  Sheridan 


418  PHILIP    H.    SHERIDAN. 

faced  it  about,  and  turned  the   defeat  into  tlie  most 
dramatic,  brilliant  and  famous  of  all  his  victories. 

In  February  of  the  following  year,  Sheridan  took  a 
place  in  that  vast  ring  of  bayonets  and  sabres  with 
which  Grant  sought  to  envelop  the  remaining  armies 
of  the  rebellion.  On  the  27th  of  that  month,  he 
moved  rapidly  up  the  valley  of  his  victories,  ran  over 
what  was  left  of  Early's  force,  smashed  it  and  captured 
two-thirds  of  it  almost  without  stopping,  then  crossed 
the  Ridge,  destroyed  the  James  river  canal,  and  break- 
ing up  railroads  and  bridges  as  he  went,  rode  across 
the  country  to  White  House,  and  thence  once  more 
joined  Grant  below  Petersburg.  Last  of  all,  in  the 
final  campaign  from  March  29th  to  Lee's  surrender  on 
April  9th,  Sheridan  and  his  troops  were  the  strong 
left  hand  of  Grant  in  all  those  operations ;  thrust  fur- 
thest out  around  Lee,  feeling  and  feeling  after  him, 
clutching  him  whenever  there  was  a  chance,  crushing 
him  like  a  vice  at  every  grasp,  and  throttling  him  with 
relentless  force,  until  the  very  power  of  further  resist- 
ance was  gone,  and  that  proposed  charge  of  Sheri- 
dan's-which  was  stopped  by  Lee's  flag  of  truce,  would 
really  have  been  made  upon  an  almost  helpless  and 
disorganized  mass  of  starving,  worn-out  soldiers  and 
disordered  wagon-trains. 

General  Sheridan's  administration  as  military  gov- 
ernor at  New  Orleans,  was  a  surprise  to  his  friends, 
from  its  exhibition  of  broad  and  high  administrative 
qualities.  Yet  there  is  much  that  is  alike  in  the  abili- 
ties of  a  good  general  and  a  good  ruler.  Gen.  Grant 
is  a  very  wise  judge  of  men,  and  his  brief  and  char- 
acteristic record  of  his  estimate  of  Sheridan  might 


grant's   opinion   of   SHERIDAN.  419 

have  justified  hopes  equal  to  the  actual  result.  To 
any  one  remembering  also  his  early  days  of  authority 
over  the  Yokimas  in  Oregon,  it  would  doubtless  have 
done  so ;  for  a  Yokima  community  and  the  community 
of  an  "unreconstructed"  southern  rebel  city  are  a 
good  deal  alike  in  many  things.  What  Grant  said  of 
Sheridan  was  as  follows,  and  was  sent  to  Secretary 
Stanton  just  after  Cedar  Creek,  and  a  little  while  before 
Sheridan's  appointment  as  Major-General  in  the  Regu- 
lar Army,  in  place  of  McClellan,  resigned : 

"City  Point,  Thursday,  Oct.  20,  8  p.  m. 

Hon.  E.  M.  Stanton,  etc. : 

I  had  a  salute  of  one  hundred  guns  from  each  of  the 
armies  here  fired  in  honor  of  Sheridan's  last  victory. 
Turning  what  bid  fair  to  be  a  disaster  into  a  glorious 
victory,  stamps  Sheridan  ichat  I  always  thought  him^ 
one  of  the  ablest  of  generals. 

U.  S.  Grant,  Lieutenant- General." 

The  extraordinary  series  of  popular  ovations  which 
have  attended  Sheridan's  recent  tour  through  part  of 
the  North,  have  proved  that  he  is.  profoundly  admired, 
honored  and  loved  by  all  good  citizens ;  and  unless  we 
except  Grant,  probably  Sheridan  is  the  most  popular 
— and  deservedly  the  most  popular — of  all  the  com- 
manders in  the  war.  Such  a  popularity,  and  won  not 
by  words  but  by  deeds,  is  an  enviable  possession. 


Eng*brAHBittiii« 


^7~.j^L^- 


CHAPTER    XIV. 

ft 

WILLIAM    T.    SHERMAN. 

The  Result  of  Eastern  Blood  and  Western  Developments — Lincoln,  Grant, 
Chase  and  Sherman  Specimens  of  it — The  Sherman  Family  Character — Hon. 
Thomas  Ewing  adopts  Sherman — Character  of  the  Boy — He  Enters  West 
Point — His  Peculiar  Traits  Showing  thus  Early — How  he  Treated  his  "  Pleb  " 
— His  Early  MiUtary  Service — His  Appearance  as  First  Lieutenant — Marries 
and  Resigns — Banker  at  San  Francisco — Superintendent  of  Louisiana  Military 
Academy — His  Noble  Letter  Resigning  the  Supcrintcndency — He  Foresees  a 
Great  War — Cameron  and  Lincoln  Think  not — Sherman  at  Bull  Run — He 
Goes  to  Kentucky — Wants  Two  Hundred  Thousand  Troops — The  False  Re- 
port of  his  Insanity— Joins  Grant ;  His  Scniccs  at  Sliiloh— Services  in  the 
Vicksburg  Campaigns— Endurance  of  Sherman  and  iiis  Army— Sherman's  es- 
timate of  Grant— How  to  live  on  the  enemy — Prepares  to  move  from  Atlanta — 
The  Great  March— His  Courtesy  to  the  Colored  People— His  Foresight  in  War 
— Sherman  on  Office-Holding. 

IVLiNY  men  of  a  very  lofty  grade  of  power  and  ex- 
cellence have  arisen  in  our  country,  among  a  class  who 
may  be  described  as  of  Eastern  blood  but  Western  de- 
velopment. They  have  themselves  been  born  at  the 
East,  or  else  their  parents  had  either  lived  there  or 
had  been  trained  in  the  ways  of  the  East.  Then, 
growing  up  in  the  freer  atmosphere,  the  more  sponta- 
neous life,  the  larger  scale  of  being,  of  the  West,  they 
have  as  it  were,  themselves  enlarged  in  mind,  and  have 
seemingly  become  better  fitted  to  cope  with  vast  exe- 
cutive problems.  Thus,  President  Lincoln  was  of 
Eastern  Quaker  blood;  General  Grant,  of  Connecticut 
blood ;  Secretary  Chase,  of  New  Hampshire  blood ; 
General  Sherman,  of  Connecticut  blood;  but  they 
were  all  either  of  Western  birth  or  else  trained  up  in 
Western  habits  of  thought,  sentiment  and  action.     The 

423 


424  WILLIAM   T.    SHERMAN. 

•West  is  larger,  stronger,  freer,  than  the  East,  and  it 
affords  a  better  opportunity  for  great,  spontaneous  and 
powerful  men. 

Perhaps  no  family  in  the  whole  United  States  was 
better  adapted  to  supply  first-class  men  by  this  pro- 
cess than  the  Shermans'.  For  generations  they  have 
been  of  strong,  practical,  thoughtful  minds,  employed 
in  the  highest  occupations,  laborious  and  efficient  in 
action,  pure  and  lofty  in  moral  tone  and  character. 
Roger  Minot  Sherman,  the  Revolutionary  statesman, 
was  of  this  stock,  though  not  in  the  same  direct  line 
with  the  General.  General  Sherman's  grandfather, 
Hon.  Taylor  Sherman,  was  long  a  judge  in  Connecti- 
cut, and  his  father,  Hon.  Charles  R.  Sherman,  was  also 
a  judge,  having  occupied  the  bench  of  the  Superior 
Court  of  Ohio  during  the  last  six  years  of  his  life.  He 
died  in  1829,  leaving  his  widow  in  narrow  circum- 
stances, with  eleven  children.  Of  these,  Charles  T. 
Sherman,  the  eldest,  has  since  been  a  successful  law- 
yer at  Washington ;  William  Tecumseh,  the  General, 
was  the  sixth,  and  John,  the  energetic,  loyal  and  useful 
Senator  from  Ohio,  the  seventh.  The  name  of  Tecum- 
seh was  given  in  consequence  of  Judge  Sherman's  ad- 
miration of  the  noble  qualities  of  that  famous  chief 

Thomas  Ewiug,  the  eminent  Whig  politician,  speak- 
er and  statesman,  had  been  an  intimate  personal  friend 
of  Judge  Sherman,  and  when  the  boy,  in  those  days 
commonly  called  by  the  unlovely  nickname  of  "Cump," 
from  his  Indian  name  of  Tecumseh,  was  about  nine 
years  old,  Mr.  Ewing  kindly  adopted  him  and  as- 
sumed the  entire  charge  of  his  support  and  education. 


SHERMAN   AT    WEST   POINT.  425 

Mr.  Ewing,  in  speaking  to  one  of  General  Sherman's 
biographers  of  his  character  as  a  boy,  described  him  as 
not  particularly  noticeable  otherwise  than  as  a  good 
scholar  and  a  steady,  honest,  intelligent  fellow.  He 
said  that  he  "never  knew  so  young  a  boy  who  would 
do  an  errand  so  promptly  and  correctly  as  he  did. 
He  was  transparently  honest,  faithful,  and  reliable. 
Studious  and  correct  in  his  habits,  his  progress  in  edu. 
cation  was  steady  and  substantial." 

In  1836,  Mr.  Ewing  was  a  member  of  Congress 
from  Ohio,  and  having  the  right  to  nominate  a  cadet 
at  West  Point,  he  offered  the  appointment  to  his  adopt- 
ed son,  who  gladly  accepted  it,  and  went  successfully 
through  the  course  of  study,  graduating  in  1840.  It 
is  a  good  illustration  of  the  wholesome  stringency  of 
the  discipline  there,  that  Sherman's  class  was  a  hun- 
dred and  forty  strong  when  it  entered,  but  only  forty- 
two  were  left  to  graduate.  The  rest  had  fainted  by 
the  way  for  lack  of  knowledge  or  energy,  or  had  been 
dismissed  for  some  fault.  In  this  "  Gideon's  band  "  of 
forty-two,  Sherman  stood  sixth.  A  short  extract  from 
one  of  his  letters  while  a  cadet  shows  a  curious  speci- 
men of  the  same  mixture  of  peremptory  sternness  in 
exacting  duties  and  substantial  kindness  to  those  who 
deserved  it  hut  no  others^  which  have  so  often  been 
noted  in  him  since.  He  writes  about  the  freshman 
who  was  according  to  custom  under  his  particular 
charge,  by  the  local  appellation  of  a  "  pleb,"  as  fol- 
lows : 

"As  to  lording  it  over  the  plebs,  *  *  «-  I  had 
only  one,  whom  I  made,  of  course,  tend  to  a  pleb's 
duty,  such  as  bringing  water,  policing  the  tent,  clean- 


426  WILLIAM    T.    SHERMAN. 

ing  my  gun  and  accoutrements  and  the  like,  and  re- 
paid in  the  usual  and  cheap  coin — advice ;  and  since 
we  have  commenced  studying,  I  make  him  hone  {i.  e. 
study,)  and  explain  to  him  the  difficult  parts  of  alge- 
bra and  the  French  grammar,  since  he  is  a  good  one 
and  a  fine  fellow;  but  should  he  not  carry  himself 
straight  I  should  have  him  found  (^.  e.,  rejected  at  ex- 
amination) in  January  and  sent  off,  that  being  the 
usual  way  in  such  cases,  and  then  take  his  bed,  table 
and  chair,  to  pay  for  the  Christmas  spree."  It  is  evi- 
dent that  while  he  was  well  enough  satisfied  to  help 
his  "fine  fellow,"  he  would  not  have  cried  much  while 
he  saw  him  turned  away  if  for  sufficient  cause,  or  wdien 
he  proceeded  to  confiscate  his  scanty  furniture. 

Sherman  was  commissioned  at  graduating.  Second 
Lieutenant  in  the  third  U.  S.  Ar.tillery ;  in  November 
1841  joined  his  company  at  Fort  Pierce,  in  East  Flor- 
ida ;  in  January  1842  became  First  Lieutenant,  and 
served  successfully  at  different  points  in  Florida,  at 
Fort  Morgan  on  Mobile  Point,  Fort  Moultrie  in  Charles- 
ton Harbor,  and  other  posts  in  the  South,  for  some 
years.  During  this  time  the  natural  elevation  of  his 
character  saved  him  from  the  frivolous  or  shameful  in- 
dulgences too  often  fallen  into  by  officers  on  garrison 
duty ;  he  read  and  studied  works  on  his  profession, 
acquainted  himself  with  the  common  law,  and  amused 
himself  with  petting  birds  and  beasts,  fishing,  hunting 
and  occasionally  with  visiting. 

When  the  Mexican  War  broke  out  he  was  at  first 
sent  on  recruiting  duty,  but  he  quickly  set  to  work  to 
beg  for  active  service,  and  on  June  29,  1846,  he  at  last 
received  an  order  to  join  his  company  at  New  York, 


SHERMAN  AS   FIRST    LIEUTENANT.  427 

on  the  way  to  California,  to  meet  Kearny's  expedition 
across  the  plains.  He  set  out  the  very  next  day,  with- 
out waiting  to  visit  even  Miss  Ewing,  his  guardian's 
daughter,  to  whom  he  was  engaged,  and  sailed  with 
his  company  in  the  storeship  Lexington,  under  the 
command  of  Lieut.  Theodorus  Bailey,  now  Rear- Ad- 
miral. General  Ord  and  General  Halleck  were  fellow 
lieutenants  with  Sherman,  and  sailed  with  him.  An  ac- 
count written  by  a  shipmate  during  this  voyage,  thus 
describes  Sherman: 

"  The  first  lieutenant  was  a  tall,  spare  man,  appar- 
ently about  thirty  years  of  age,  with  sandy  hair  and 
whiskers,  and  a  reddish  complexion.  Grave  in  his 
demeanor,  erect  and  soldierly  in  his  bearing,  he  was 
especially  noticeable  for  the  foded  and  threadbare  ap- 
pearance of  his  uniform.  **•?«•  jj^  ^j^g  charac- 
terized at  this  time  by  entire  devotion  to  his  profession 
in  all  its  details.  His  care  for  both  -the  comfort  and 
discipline  of  his  men  was  constant  and  unwearied." 

His  California  campaigns  were  not  very  adventurous, 
but  he  became  reputed  an  excellent  business  officer 
in  his  staff  appointment  as  assistant  adjutant-general. 
Returning  in  1850,  he  married  Miss  Ewing,  May  1st, 
of  that  year.  In  September  he  was  made  a  commis- 
sary of  subsistence  with  the  rank  of  Captain  ;  in  March 
1851,  was  commissioned  brevet  Captain,  "for  merito- 
rious services  in  California,"  and  in  September  1853, 
seeing  no  prospects  in  the  army  that  satisfied  him,  he 
resigned,  and  became  manager  of  Lucas,  Minei'  &  Go's 
branch  banking  house  at  San  Francisco. 

It  is  probable  that  the  superin tendency  of  the  Lou- 
isiana State  Military  Academy,  which  with  a  salary  of 


428  WILLIAM   T.    SHERMAN. 

$5,000  was  offered  to  liim  and  accepted  in  1860,  was 
intended  to  secure  his  own  co-operation  in  case  of  se- 
cession, or  at  least  his  services  in  training  southern  of- 
ficers. But  his  term  of  office  was  not  long ;  although 
as  has  been  sarcastically  observed,  "  since  then,  he  has 
had  the  opportunity  to  still  further  educate  his  former 
pupils."  He  had  not  been  in  his  new  post  a  half  year, 
when,  foreseeing  the  necessary  result  of  the  counsels 
of  the  South,  and  not  waiting  for  the  overt  act  which 
almost  all  other  good  citizens  needed  to  open  their 
eyes,, he  decided  upon  his  course,  and  wrote  to  Gover- 
nor Moore  a  letter  which  has  been  often  printed,  but 
which  cannot  be  too  often  printed ;  a  noble  and  sim- 
ple avowal  of  patriotic  principle  and  duty.  It  was  as 
follows : 

January  8,   1861. 
"Governor  Thomas 0.  Moore,  Baton  Rouge,  Louisiana: 

"  Sir: — As  I  occupy  a  (/itasz-military  position  under 
this  State,  I  deem  it  proper  to  acquaint  you  that  I  ac- 
cepted such  position  when  Louisiana  was  a  State  in 
the  Union,  and  when  the  motto  of  the  seminary  was 
inserted  in  marble  over  the  main  door,  '  By  the  liber- 
ality of  the  General  Government  of  the  United  States. 
The  Union:  Esto  Perpetua.^ 

"Recent  events  foreshadow  a  great  change,  and  it 
becomes  all  men  to  choose.  If  Louisiana  withdraws 
from  the  Federal  Union,  I  prefer  to  maintain  my  alle- 
giance to  the  old  Constitution  as  long  as  a  fragment  of 
it  survives,  and  my  longer  stay  here  would  be  wrong 
in  every  sense  of  the  word.  In  that  event,  I  beg  you 
will  send  or  appoint  some  authorized  agent  to  take 
charge  of  the  arms  and  munitions  of  war  here  belong- 


HE   FORESEES  A   GREAT    WAR.  429 

ing  to  the  State,  or  direct  me  what  disposition  should 
be  made  of  them. 

"And  furthermore,  as  President  of  the  Board  of  Su- 
pervisors, I  beg  you  to  take  immediate  steps  to  relieve 
me  as  superintendent  the  moment  the  State  determines 
to  secede  ;  for  on  no  earthly  account  will  I  do  any  act, 
or  think  any  thought,  hostile  to  or  in  defiance  of  the 
old  Government  of  the  United  States. 

With  great  respect,  &c., 
(Signed,)  W.  T.  SHERMAN." 

The  rebels  had  lost  their  general.  His  resignation 
was  at  once  accepted,  and  Sherman  went  to  St.  Louis, 
where  he  had  left  his  family,  and  impatient  of  idleness, 
became  superintendent  of  a  street  railroad  company, 
and  so  remained  until  after  the  surrender  of  Sumter. 

He  now  went  to  Washington  and  offered  his  services 
to  Government.  Secretary  Cameron  replied,  "  The 
ebullition  of  feeling  will  soon  subside ;  we  shall  not 
need  many  troops."  Mr.  Lincoln  replied,  "  We  shall 
not  need  many  men  like  you  ;  the  storm  will  soon  blow 
over."  In  short,  Sherman  could  not  make  anybody 
believe  him,  and  he  experienced  a  good  deal  of  the 
disagreeable  fate  of  prophets  of  evil ;  and  not  for  the 
last  time  either.  But  he  was  totally  unmoved  in  his 
conviction ;  he  refused  to  have  any  thing  to  do  with 
raising  three-months'  men,  saying,  "  You  might  as  well 
attempt  to  put  out  the  flames  of  a  burning  house  with 
a  squirt-gun ;"  and  he  still  vainly  urged  the  govern- 
ment with  all  his  might  to  fling  the  whole  military 
power  of  the  country  at  once  upon  the  rebellion  and 


430  WILLIAM    T.    SHERMAN 

crush  tlie  beginning  of  it.  When,  however,  the  reg- 
ular army  was  enlarged,  Sherman  applied  for  a  com- 
mand in  the  new  force,  and  Gen.  McDowell  readily 
procured  him  a  commission  as  Colonel  of  the  13th 
Regular  Infantry,  and  in  the  meanwhile,  the  regiment 
not  being  yet  raised,  he  served  as  brigadier  in  the  bat- 
tle of  Bull  Run,  under  Gen.  Tyler,  commanding  a  di- 
vision. 

In  this  defeat,  Sherman  and  his  brigade  did  very 
creditably.  His  promptitude  in  going  into  action,  and 
his  good  fighting,  were  of  great  use  in  gaining  the 
advantages  of  the  beginning  of  the  battle;  he  did 
not  retreat  until  ordered  to  do  so,  and  retired  in  com- 
paratively goo4  order.  He  used  his  natural  freedom 
and  plainness  of  speech  in  observing  upon  the  conduct 
of  his  own  oflQcers  and  men  during  the  battle,  and  made 
enemies  thereby ;  but  he  had  so  clearly  shown  himself 
a  good  and  ready  soldier,  that  when  his  brother  the 
Senator  and  the  Ohio  delegation  urged  his  appointment 
as  brigadier-general  of  volunteers  it  was  soon  given 
him,  and  after  remaining  in  the  Army  of  the  Potomac 
until  September,  1861,  he  was  sent  to  Kentucky,  as 
second  in  command  under  Gen.  Anderson,  commanding 
the  department.  A  month  afterwards,  Anderson's 
health  having  broken  down,  Sherman  succeeded  him. 

In  a  few  days,  Mr.  Secretary  Cameron,  and  Adju- 
tant-General Lorenzo  Thomas,  came  to  Louisville,  in  a 
hurry  to  have  the  new  department  commander  beat 
the  rebels  and  secure  Kentucky  to  the  Union.  Sher- 
man knew  war,  almost  intuitivelv ;  he  knew  the  re- 
sources  and  the  spirit  of  the  rebels,  and  the  military 
characteristics  of  Kentucky,  and  of  Tennessee  behind 


FALSE   REPORTS    OF    HIS   INSANITY.  431 

it.  "How  many  troops,"  asked  the  Secretary  of  War, 
"do  you  require  in  your  department  ?"  "  Sixty  thou- 
sand," answered  Sherman,  "to  drive  the  enemy  out  of 
Kentucky ;  two  hundred  thousand  to  finish  the  war  in 
this  section."  This  seems  to  have  struck  the  two  in- 
quirers as  sheer  nonsense ;  and  in  the  adjutant-gene- 
ral's report,  which — as  if  to  help  the  rebels  to  as  full 
information  as  possible — was  at  once  printed  in  all  the 
newspapers,  with  full  particulars  of  the  state  of  the 
armies  at  the  west,  Sherman's  estimate  was  barely  an- 
nounced, without  explanation  or  comment.  All  those 
persons  who  understood  less  of  war  than  Sherman, 
now  at  once  set  him  down  for  a  man  of  no  sense  or 
judgment.  A  disreputable  newspaper  coiTcspondent, 
enraged  at  Sherman  for  some  reason,  seized  the  oppor- 
tunity to  set  afloat  a  story  that  Sherman  was  actually 
crazy,  and  the  lie  was  really  believed  by  multitudes  all 
over  the  United  States.  The  war-prophet  was  misun- 
derstood and  despised  again,  even  more  remarkably 
than  when  he  foretold  a  long  war,  before  Bull  Run. 
Sherman's  ofiicial  superiors  so  far  sympathised  with 
this  clamor  as  to  supersede  him  by  Gen.  Buell,  and  to 
send  him  to  Gen.  Halleck,  who  had  faith  enough  left 
in  him  to  put  him  in  charge  of  -the  recruiting  rendez- 
vous at  Benton  Barracks,  St.  Louis. 

Here  he  remained,  hard  at  work  on  mere  details,  all 
winter.  When  Grant,  having  taken  Fort  Henry,  came 
down  the  Tennessee,  and  turning  about,  ascended  the 
Cumberland,  to  attack  Donelson,  Gen.  Sherman  was 
ordered  to  Paducah,  to  superintend  the  sending  for- 
ward of  supplies  and  reinforcements,  a  duty  which  he 
performed  with  so  much  speed  and  efficiency,  that 
27 


432  WILLIAM   T.    SHERMAN. 

Gen.  Grant  reported  himself  "greatly  indebted  for  his 
promptness." 

After  Donelson,  Sherman  was  appointed  to  the  fifth 
of  the  six  divisions  in  which  Grant  organized  the 
army  with  which  he  advanced  by  Nashville  to  Shiloh ; 
the  greenest  of  all  the  divisions,  no  part  of  it  having 
been  under  fire,  or  even  under  military  discipline.  At 
the  battle  of  Shiloh,  Sherman's  troops,  with  the  mag- 
nificent inborn  courage  of  the  western  men,  green  as 
they  were,  fought  like  veterans ;  and  his  and  McCler- 
nand's  divisions  were  the  only  part  of  Grant's  army 
that  at  all  held  their  ground,  and  even  this  was  only 
done  after  twice  falling  back  to  new  positions,  in  con- 
sequence of  the  giving  way  of  troops  on  either  hand. 
It  was  with  Sherman  that  Grant  agreed,  before  he 
knew  of  the  close  approach  of  reinforcements,  to  at- 
tack in  the  morning  ;  and  after  the  disappointed  Beau- 
regard had  retreated  next  day,  it  was  Sherman  who 
moved  his  division  in  pursuit ;  although  the  exhausted 
and  disorganized  condition  of  the  troops  prevented 
continuing  the  pursuit.  He  waS  severely  wounded  by 
a  bullet  through  the  left  hand  on  the  fii'st  day  of  the 
fight;  bandaged  the  wound  and  kept  on  fighting; 
was  wounded  again  the  next  day,  and  had  three 
horses  shot  under  him,  but  rode  out  the  battle  on  the 
fourth.  Though  the  very  first  battle  in  which  he  had 
held  an  independent  command — ^■for  it  was  to  a  great 
degree  such — so  thoroughly  was  he  master  of  the 
"profession  in  all  its  details,"  to  which  he  had  seemed 
so  devoted  when  a  lieutenant  on  shipboard,  that  he 
seems  to  have  found  no  embarrassment  in  using  all 
the  resources  which  any  commander  could  have  em- 


SHERMJLN  AT   SHTLOH.  433 

ployed  in  liis  place.     Halleck,  a  man  sparing  of  com- 

•  pliments,  in  asking  tliat  Sherman  should  be  made 
major-general  of  volunteers,  said:  "It  is  the  unanim- 
ous opinion  here  that  Brigadier-General  W.  T.  Sher- 
man saved  the  fortunes  of  the  day  on  the  6th,  and 
contributed  largely  to  the  glorious  victory  of  the  7th." 

And  General  Grant,  whose  noble  friendship  with 
Sherman,  beginning  about  this  time,  has  continued 
unbroken  ever  since,  spoke  subsequently  in  still  more 
decided  and  generous  terms,  when  asking  for  Sherman 
a  commission  as  brigadier  in  the  regular  service.  He 
wrote  to  the  War  Department : 

"At  the  battle  of  Shiloh,  on  the  first  day,  he  held, 
with  raw  troops,  the  key  point  of  the  landing.  It  is 
no  disparagement  to  any  other  officer  to  say,  that  I 
do  not  believe  there  was  another  division  commander 
on  the  field  who  had  the  skill  and  experience  to  have 
done  it.  To  his  individual  efibrts  I  am  indebted  for 
the  success  of  that  battle." 

During  the  following  operations  against  and 
around  Corinth,  Sherman  and  his  division  did 
most  excellent  service.  He  had  now  received  his 
commission  as  a  major-general  of  volunteers.  When 
Grant  became  commander  of  the  Department  of  the 
Tennessee,  in  July,  1862,  at  the  time  of  Halleck's  ap- 
pointment as  general-in-chief,  he  placed  Sherman  in 

*  command  of  the  bitterly  and  perseveringly  rebel  city 
of  Memphis,  which  Sherman  governed  sternly,  shrewd- 
ly, thoroughly  and  well,  under  the  laws  of  war,  until 
autumn. 

In  Grant's  first  attempt  against  Yicksburg,  Sher- 
man's attack  by  Chickasaw  Bluffs,  was  an  important 


434  WILLIAM    T.    SHERMAN. 

part  of  the  plan.  It  failed,  because  the  other  parts — 
Grant's  march  in  consequence  of  the  surrender  of 
Holly  Springs,  and  Banks'  movement  from  New  Or- 
leans for  other  reasons — did  not  succeed ;  but  Grant, 
in  afterwards  examining  the  ground,  said  that  Sher- 
man's arrangement  was  "admu-able." 

The  capture  of  the  strong  rebel  fort  at  Arkansas 
Post,  January  11,  1863,  was  a  suggestion  of  General 
Sherman's,  who  commanded  the  land  force  which  car- 
ried the  fort,  after  one  day's  fire,  with  the  hearty  help 
of  Admiral  Porter's  fleet. 

In  Grant's  successive  attempts  against  Yicksburg, 
Sherman  was  an  indefatigable  and  most  efficient  help- 
er. In  the  final  move  across  the  river  south  of  the 
place,  Sherman  co-operated  by  amusing  the  enemy 
with  a  false  attack  at  Haines'  Bluff,  which  was  kept 
up  with  great  ostentation  during  two  days,  a  large 
rebel  force  being  thus  detained  from  going  down  the 
river  to  oppose  Grant's  crossing  there.  In  the  series 
of  marches  and  battles  that  cut  ofi"  Johnston  from 
Pemberton,  destroyed  the  military  importance  for  the 
time  being  of  the  city  of  Jackson,  and  drove  Pember- 
ton into  the  lines  of  Vicksburg ;  and  during  the  siege, 
in  effectually  preventing  any  chance  of  relief  from 
Johnston,  Sherman's  services  were  constant  and  val- 
uable. Instantly  upon  the  surrender,  he  moved  his 
army  corps  against  Jackson,  where  Johnston  had  halt- 
ed, and  by  way  of  finish  to  the  campaign,  drove  him 
out,  and  thoroughly  broke  up  the  railroad  lines  meet- 
ing there.  We  quote  again  Grant's  frank  acknowledg- 
ment of  the  services  of  his  great  lieutenant : 


fflS   SERVICES   AT   VICKSBURG.  435 

"  The  siege  of  Vicksburg  and  last  capture  of  Jackson 
and  dispersion  of  Johnston's  army  entitle  Gen.  Sherman 
to  more  credit  than  generally  falls  to  the  lot  of  one  man 
to  earn.  His  demonstration  at  Haines'  Bluff,  *  *  *  his 
rapid  marches  to  join  the  army  afterwards ;  his  man- 
agement at  Jackson,  Mississippi,  in  the  first  attack ; 
his  almost  unequaled  march  from  Jackson  to  Bridge- 
port, and  passage  of  Black  River ;  his  securing  Wal- 
nut Hills  on  the  18th  of  May,  attest  his  great  merit  as 
a  soldier." 

General  Sherman's  commission  as  brigadier  in  the 
regular  army,  dated  July  4,  1863,  the  day  of  the  fall 
of  Vicksburg,  reached  him  August  14th,  following ; 
and  we  quote  a  passage  of  his  letter  to  General  Grant 
on  the  occasion,  for  the  pleasant  purpose  of  recording 
it  near  Grant's  expressions  of  obligation  to  Sherman : 

"  I  had  the  satisfaction  to  receive  last  night  the  ap- 
pointment as  brigadier-general  in  the  regular  army, 
with  a  letter  fi-om  General  Halleck,  very  friendly  and 
complimentary  in  its  terms.  I  know  that  I  owe  this  to 
your  favor,  and  beg  to  acknowledge  it,  and  add,  that  I 
value  the  commission  far  less  than  the  fact  that  this 
will  associate  my  name  with  yours  and  McPherson's  in 
opening  the  Mississippi,  an  achievement  the  import- 
ance of  which  cannot  be  over-estimated. 

"I  beg  to  assure  you  of  my  deep  personal  at- 
tachment, and  to  express  the  hope  that  the  chances 
of  war  will  leave  me  to  serve  near  and  under  you  till 
the  dawn  of  that  peace  for  which  we  are  contending, 
with  the  only  purpose  that  it  shall  be  honorable  and 
lasting." 


436  WILLIAM   T.    SHERMAN. 

Rosecrans  was  defeated  at  Chickamauga  by  Bragg, 
Sept.  19tli  and  20tli,  1863.  On  this,  Grant  was  placed 
in  command  of  the  whole  Military  Division  of  the 
Mississippi,  and  Sherman  under  him  over  the  Depart- 
ment of  the  Tennessee.  He  was  at  once  set  to  march 
his  troops  four  hundred  miles  across  to  Grant  at  Chat- 
tanooga; accomplished  it  with  wonderful  energy, 
skill  and  speed ;  commanded  Grant's  left  at  the  battle 
of  Chattanooga,  beginning  the  fight,  and  sustaining  and 
drawing  the  rebel  attacks  until  their  center  was  weaken- 
ed enough  to  enable  the  Union  center  under  Thomas 
to  storm  Missionary  Ridge,  and  win  the  battle.  After 
the  victory  and  the  enemy's  pursuit,  Sherman's  force 
was  sent  straightway  northward  a  further  hundred 
miles,  to  relieve  Burnside,  now  perilously  beset  in 
Knoxville.  Colonel  Bowman  thus  powerfully  states 
the  task  which  this  energetic  and  enduring  commander 
and  army  performed : 

"A  large  part  of  Sherman's  command  had  marched 
from  Memphis,  had  gone  into  battle  immediately  on 
arriving  at  Chattanooga,  and  had  had  no  rest  since. 
In  the  late  campaign  officers  and  men  had  carried  no 
luggage  and  provisions.  The  week  before,  they  had 
left  their  camps,  on  the  right  bank  of  the  Tennessee, 
with  only  two  days'  rations,  without  a  change  of  clo- 
thing, stripped  for  the  fight,  each  officer  and  man, 
from  the  commanding  general  down,  having  but  a 
single  blanket  or  overcoat.  They  had  now  no  provi- 
sions save  what  had  been  gathered  by  the  road,  and 
were  ill  supplied  for  such  a  march.  Moreover,  the 
weather  was  intensely  cold.  But  twelve  thousand  of 
their  fellow-soldiers  were  beleaguered  in  a  mountain 


Sherman's  estimate  of  grant.  437 

town  eighty-four  miles  distant;  they  needed  relief, 
and  must  have  it  in  three  days.  This  was  enough. 
Without  a  murmur,  without  waiting  for  anything,  the 
Army  of  the  Tennessee  directed  its  course  upon  Knox- 
ville." 

This  vigorous  forced  march  was  entirely  successful ; 
Longstreet,  after  one  violent  and  vain  assault  against 
Burnside's  works,  fled  eastward  into  Virginia,  and 
Sherman,  returning  and  placing  his  troops  in  camp  to 
rest  and  refresh,  returned  to  Memphis.  While  there, 
March  10,  1864,  he  received  that  simple  and  noble 
letter  from  Grant,  acknowledging  the  latter's  obliga- 
tions to  Sherman  and  McPherson,  which  we  have  cop- 
ied in  our  chapter  on  General  Grant.  We  quote  Sher- 
man's reply,  which  is  indeed  not  less  interesting  than 
the  letter  as  a  display  of  frank  and  manly  friendsliip, 
and  which  moreover  contains  one  of  Sherman's  char- 
acteristic prophecies,  viz.,  the  final  allusion  to  the 
winding  up  of  the  war  by  the  "Great  March,"  and  the 
siege  of  Richmond,  when  the  West  should  once  more 
have  been  made  sure : 

"Dear  General: — I  have  your  more  than  kind 
and  characteristic  letter  of  the  4th  inst.  I  will  send 
a  copy  to  General  McPherson  at  once. 

"You  do  yourself  injustice  and  us  too  much 
honor  in  assigning  to  us  too  large  a  share  of 
the  merits  which  have  led  to  your  high  advancement. 
I  know  you  approve  the  friendship  I  have  ever  pro- 
fessed to  you,  and  will  permit  me  to  continue,  as  here- 
tofore, to  manifest  it  on  all  proper  occasions. 

"You  are  now  Washington's  legitimate  successor,  and 
occupy  a  position  of  alm(3st  dangerous  elevation ;  but 


438  WILLIAM   T.    SHERMAM. 

if  you  can  continue,  as  heretofore,  to  be  yourself, 
simple,  honest  and  unpretending,  you  will  enjoy 
through  life  the  respect  and  love  of  friends,  and  the 
homage  of  millions  of  human  beings,  that  will  award 
you  a  large  share  in  securing  to  them  and  their  de- 
scendants a  government  of  law  and  stability. 

"I  repeat,  you  do  General  McPherson  and  myself 
too  much  honor.  At  Belmont  you  manifested  your 
traits — neither  of  us  being  near.  At  Donelson,  also,  * 
you  illustrated  your  whole  character.  I  was  not  near, 
and  General  McPherson  in  too  subordinate  a  capacity 
to  influence  you. 

"Until  you  had  won  Donelson,  I  confess  I  was  al- 
most cowed  by  the  terrible  array  of  anarchical  ele- 
ments that  presented  themselves  at  every  point ;  but 
that  admitted  a  ray  of  light  I  have  followed  since. 

"  I  believe  you  are  as  brave,  patriotic,  and  just  as 
the  great  prototype,  Washington — as  unselfish,  kind- 
hearted,  and  honest  as  a  man  should  be — but  the  chief 
characteristic  is  the  simple  faith  in  success  you  have 
always  manifested,  which  I  can  liken  to  nothing  else 
than  the  faith  a  Christian  has  in  the  Saviour. 

"This  faith  gave  you  victory  at  Shiloh  and  Yicks- 
burg.  Also,  when  you  have  completed'your  prepara- 
tions, you  go  into  battle  without  hesitation,  as  at  Chat- 
tanooga— no  doubts — no  reverses ;  and  I  tell  you  it 
was  this  that  made  us  act  with  confidence.  I  knew, 
wherever  I  was,  that  you  thought  of  me,  and  if  I  got 
in  a  tight  place  you  would  help  me  out,  if  alive. 

"My  only  point  of  doubts  was  in  your  knowledge 
of  grand  strategy,  and  of  books  of  science  and  histo- 


Sherman's  estimate  of  grant.  439 

ry ;  but  I  confess,  your  common  sense  seems  to  have 
supplied  all  these. 

"Now,  as  to  the  future.  Don't  stay  in  Washington. 
Come  West ;  take  to  yourself  the  whole  Mississippi 
Valley.  Let  us  make  it  dead  sure — and  I  tell  you, 
the  Atlantic  slopes  and  Pacific  shores  will  follow  its 
destiny,  as  sure  as  the  limbs  of  a  tree  live  or  die  with 
the  main  trunk.  We  have  done  much,  but  still  much 
remains.  Time  and  time's  influences  are  with  us.  We 
could  almost  afford  to  sit  still,  and  let  these  influences 
work. 

"  Here  lies  the  seat  of  the  coming  empire,  and  from 
the  West,  when  our  task  is  done,  we  will  make  short 
work  of  Charleston  and  Richmond,  and  the  impov- 
erished coast  of  the  Atlantic. 

Your  sincere  friend, 

W.  T.  SHERJMAN." 

When  Grant  was  appointed  Lieutenant-General, 
Sherman  succeeded  him  in  the  great  command  of  the 
Department  of  the  Mississippi;  and  accompanying 
Grant  from  Nashville  to  Cincinnati  on  the  road  of  the 
former  to  Washington,  the  two  great  commanders  on 
the  way  and  at  the  Burnet  House  in  Cincinnati,  agreed 
together  upon  the  whole  main  structure  of  that  colos- 
sal campaign  which  during  the  following  thirteen 
months  smote  into  annihilation  all  that  remained  of 
the  military  power  of  the  rebellion. 

Sherman  at  once  set  to  work  to  accumulate  stores 
sufficient  for  a  campaign,  and  his  own  statements  of 
his  motives  and  views  in  so  doing,  are  so  comically  like 
his  doctrines  about  his  "pleb"  when  a  cadet  at  West 


440  WILLIAM   T.    SHERMAN. 

Point,  that  we  quote  a  couple  of  passages.  Having 
put  a  stop  to  the  government  issues  of  rations  to  the 
poor  of  East  Tennessee,  he  says : 

"At  first  my  orders  operated  very  hardly,  but  * 
*  *  no  actual  suffering  resulted,  and  I  trust  that 
those  who  clamored  at  the  cruelty  and  hardships  of  the 
day  have  already  seen  in  the  result  a  perfect  justifica- 
tion of  my  course." 

Seeing  it  himself,  it  is  moreover  clear  that  if  they 
did  not,  it  would  hot  particularly  distress  him.  In  stat- 
ing how  he  proposed  to  live  if  he  marched  into  Geor- 
gia, he  is  as  independently  and  rigidly  just : 

"  Georgia  has  a  million  of  inhabitants.  If  they  can 
live,  we  should  not  starve.  If  the  enemy  interrupt 
my  communications,  I  will  be  absolved  from  all  obli- 
gations to  subsist  on  my  own  resources,  but  feel  per- 
fectly justified  in  taking  whatever  and  wherever  I  can 
find.  I  will  inspire  my  command,  if  successful,  with 
my  feelings,  and  that  beef  and  salt  are  all  that  are  ab- 
solutely necessary  to  life,  and  parched  corn  fed  Gen- 
eral Jackson's  army  once,  on  that  very  ground." 

All  things  being  ready,  Sherman  moved  from  Chat- 
tanooga on  May  6th,  1864,  and  by  a  series  of  labo- 
rious marches,  skillful  manoeuvres  and  well  fought  bat- 
tles, flanked  or  drove  Johnston  backwards  from  one 
strong  post  to  another,  until  on  the  17th  of  July,  Jef- 
ferson Davis  greatly  simplified  and  shortened  Sherman's 
problem  by  putting  the  rash  and  incompetent  Hood  in 
the  place  of  the  skillful  and  persevering  soldier  who  had 
with  less  than  half  Sherman's  force,  by  using  the  nat- 
ural advantages  of  the  country,  made  him  take  seventy- 
two  days  to  advance  a  hundred  miles,  and  at  the  end 


PREPARES  TO  MOVE  FROM  ATLANTA.       441 

of  that  time  actually  had  more  troops  thdn  at  first, 
while  Sherman  had  many  less.  In  fact,  Johnston  was 
on  the  very  point  of  making  a  dangerous  attack  on 
Sherman  at  the  right  point,  when  Hood  took  com- 
mand, at  once  attacked  on  the  wi'ong  one,  and  was  de- 
feated. Still  advancing,  Sherman  manoeuvred  Hood 
out  of  Atlanta ;  saw  that  mad  bull  of  a  general  set  off 
some  months  later,  head  down  and  eyes  shut,  on  his 
way  to  dash  himself  against  the  steady  strength  of 
Thomas  at  Nashville  ;  and  turning  back  to  Atlanta,  he 
prepared  for  his  Great  March  to  the  Sea. 

He  had  already  cleaned  Atlanta  clean  of  rebels ;  ex- 
porting all  of  them  within  their  own  military  lines, 
and  meeting  their  own  and  also  Hood's  appeals,  re- 
spectively piteous  and  enraged,  with  sarcastic  answers 
in  his  own  inimitable  style  of  cold  sharp  just  reason- 
ing. He  made  the  city  nothing  but  a  place  of  arms ; 
and  having  almost  exactly  the  force  of  all  arms  that 
he  had  required  for  his  purpose — for  his  Cassandra 
days  were  over,  and  his  country  was  by  this  time  glad 
and  prompt  to  believe  him  and  give  him  the  tools  he 
needed  to  do  its  work  with — he  issued  his  orders  of 
march  on  November  9th ;  sent  his  last  dispatch  from 
the  interior  to  Washington,  on  the  11th ;  his  army 
was  cut  free  from  its  former  communications  next  day ; 
on  the  14th  it  was  concentrated  at  Atlanta  ;  next  day 
two  hundred  acres  of  buildings,  including  all  but  the 
private  dwellings  of  the  city  were  burned  or  blown 
up ;  a  Massachusetts  brigade,  its  band  playing  the 
wonderful  "John  Brown"  folk-song,  was  the  last  to 
leave  the  city ;  and  with  all  the  railroads  effectually 
ruined  behind  it,  and  a  parting  message  to  General 


442  WILLIAM   T.    SHERMAN. 

Thomas  that  "  All  is  well,"  all  organized,  provisioned, 
and  stripped  down  to  the  very  last  limit  of  impedi- 
ments, "  the  Lost  Army  "  and  its  great  leader  set  their 
faces  southward  and  disappeared  from  the  sight  of 
their  loyal  countrymen  for  four  weeks. 

We  cannot  here  repeat  the  well  known  and  roman- 
tic story  of  that  Great  March.  With  scarcely  any  se- 
rious opposition,  Sherman,  an  unsurpassed  master 
in  the  art  of  moving  great  armies,  deluded  what 
few  opponents  there  were,  with  feints  and  march- 
es on  this  side  and  on  that,  or  brushed  them  away  if 
they  stood,  and  pierced  straight  through  the  very 
heart  of  the  rebellion  to  Savannah;  stormed  Fort 
McAllister,  opened  communication  with  the  fleet,  drove 
Hardee  out  of  Savannah,  and  presented  the  city  and 
25,000  bales  of  cotton,  a  "  Christmas  present "  to  Pres- 
ident Lincoln ;  then  turning  northward,  resumed  his 
deadly  way  along  the  vitals  of  the  confederacy,  doing 
exactly  what  he  had  foretold  in  his  letter  to  Grant ; 
and  sure  enough,  they  did  between  them,  "  make  short 
work  of  Charleston  and  Richmond  and  the  impov- 
erished coast  of  the  Atlantic."  The  surrender  of  Lee 
was  quickly  followed  by  that  of  Johnston,  and  except 
for  the  small  force  which  for  a  short  time  remained  in 
arms  beyond  the  Mississippi,  the  rebellion  was  ended. 

We  cannot  even  give  specimen  extracts  of  the  many 
strongly  and  clearly  worded  papers  written  by  Gen- 
eral Sherman  during  his  military  career,  as  general 
orders,  directions  for  the  government  of  captured 
places  or  property,  or  discussions  of  points  of  mili- 
tary or  civil  law.  But  we  must  transcribe  the  noblest 
compliment  which  the  great  soldier  ever  received ;  the 


HIS   FORSIGHT   IN   WAR.  443 

testimony  of  tlie  colored  clergyman,  Rev.  Garrison 
Frazier,  at  Savannah,  during  the  conferences  there  for 
organizing  the  freedmen,  to  the  merits  of  General 
Sherman  towards  the  race.     Mr.  Frazier  said : 

"  We  looked  upon  General  Sherman  prior  to  his  ar- 
rival as  a  man  in  the  providence  of  God  specially  set 
apart  to  accomplish  this  work,  and  we  unanimously 
feel  inexpressible  gratitude  to  him,  looking  upon  him 
as  a  man  that  should  be  honored  for  the  faithful  per- 
formance of  his  duty.  Some  of  us  called  on*him  im- 
mediately upon  his  arrival,  and  it  is  probable  he  luo^dcl 
not  meet  the  Secretary  luith  more  courtesy  than  he  met 
us.  His  conduct  and  deportment  towards  us  charac- 
terized him  as  a  friend  and  a  gentleman.  We  have 
confidence  in  General  Sherman,  and  think  whatever 
concerns  us  could  not  be  under  better  management." 

Of  Sherman's  characteristics  as  a  general,  we  shall 
also  give  one  single  trait  illustrating  the  most  wonder- 
ful of  them  all — his  almost  divining  foresight.  We 
have  more  than  once  showed  how  he  foresaw  only  too 
much  for  his  own  comfort-;  but  in  the  present  instance 
he  kept  the  matter  to  himself  It  was,  a  preparation 
when  the  war  broke  out  for  that  very  march  which  he 
foretold  in  his  letter  to  Grant  and  afterwards  made. 
This  preparation  consisted  in  his  obtaining  from  the 
Census  Bureau  at  Washington  a  map  of  the  "  Cotton 
States,"  with  a  table  giving  the  latest  census  returns 
of  the  cattle,  horses  and  other  products  of  each  coun- 
ty in  them.  On  the  basis  of  this  he  studied  the  South 
for  three  years;  and  when  the  time  for  the  march 
came,  he  knew  substantially  the  whole  resources  of 
the  country  he  was  to  pass  through. 


444  WILLIAM   T.    SHERMAN. 

General  Sherman's  negotiations  witli  Johnston,  their 
disapproval  by  Government,  and  his  quarrel  in  conse- 
quence with  General  Halleck  and  Secretary  Stanton 
were  unfortunate ;  but  it  would  be  utterly  absurd  to 
admit  for  a  moment  that  his  motives  in  what  he  did 
were  other  than  the  very  best ;  and  his  own  explana- 
tion of  the  affair  shows  that  he  was  following  out  a 
policy  which  would  have  been  in  full  harmony  with 
President  Lincoln's  own  feelings,  as  communicated  to 
Sherman  on  the  subject. 

Perhaps  General  Sherman  may  some  day  be  selected 
for  some  high  civil  office.  He  is  a  man  perhaps  only 
of  too  lofty  character  and  too  brilliant  genius  to  be 
harnessed  into  political  traces.  He  was  once  nomi- 
nated for  something  or  other  at  San  Francisco,  but 
when  the  "  committee  "  came  to  tell  him,  he  answered 
sarcastically,  "  Gentlemen,  I  am  not  eligible  ;  I  am  not 
properly  educated  to  hold  office  !  "  Col.  Bowman  ob- 
serves, "This  nomination  was  the  commencement  of 
his  political  career,  and  his  reply  was  the  end  of  it" 
It  is  true  in  too  many  cases  that  a  true  soldier,  like  a 
good  citizen,  will  find  his  very  virtues  the  insurmount- 
able obstacles  to  political  success.  This  is  perhaps  like- 
ly to  remain  the  case  unless  the  rule  shall  come  into 
vogue  that  nobody  shall  have  an  office  who  lets  it  be 
known  that  he  wants  it. 


^tKyA 


aBitcbi^ 


IS.^S.HvHAn^ 


CHAPTER  XV. 

OLIVER    0.    HOWARD. 

Can  tlicre  be  a  Christian  Soldier  ? — Gfeneral  Howard's  Birth — His  Military  Edu- 
cation— His  Life  Before  the  Rebellion — Resigns  in  Order  to  get  into  tlie  Field 
— Made  Brigadier  for  Good  Conduct  at  Bull  Run — Commands  tlie  Eleventh 
Corps  and  Joins  the  Army  at  Chattanooga — His  Services  in  the  Army  of  the 
Potomac — Extreme  Calmness  on  the  Field  of  Battle — Senices  witli  Sherman 
— Sherman's  high  Opinion  of  him — Col.  Bowman's  Atlmiration  of  Howard's 
Christian  Observances — Patriotic  Scr\-ices  while  Invalided  at  Home — Reproves 
the  Swearing  Teamster — Placed  over  the  Freedmcn's  Bureau — The  Central 
Historic  Fact  of  the  War — The  Rise  of  Societies  to  Help  the  Freedmen — The 
Work  of  the  Freedmen's  Bm-eau — Disadvantages  Encountered  by  it,  and  by 
Grcncral  Howard — Results  of  the  Bureau  thus  far — Col.  Bowman's  Description 
of  Gen.  Howard's  Duties — Gen.  Sherman's  Letter  to  Gen.  Howard  on  Assum- 
ing tho  Post — Estimate  of  Gen.  Howard's  Abilities. 

The  spirit  of  Christ  is  all  love;  it  seeks  only  to 
enhance  the  highest  good  of  existence,  and  to  give  to 
every  being  its  utmost  of  happiness.  The  spirit  of 
war  is  all  wrath.  It  seeks  to  destroy  by  violence,  and 
as  fast  as  possible,  whatever  and  whoever  may  oppose 
it.  These  two  principles  would  seem  so  diametrically 
opposed  to  each  other,  that  no  man  could  be  at  once 
a  Christian  and  a  soldier,  any  more  than  he  could  ride 
at  once  on  two  horses  going  in  opposite  directions,  or 
turn  his  back  on  himself,  and  at  once  go  forward  and 
backward.  Indeed,  the  cases  where  the  two  profes- 
sions have  been  united  are  rare,  and  may  probably 
depend  upon  some  uncommon  conjunction  of  gifts. 
But  there  certainly  have  been  such.  Colonel  Gardiner 
was  one.     General  Havelock  was  another ;  and  Gene- 

447 


4:48  OLIVER   O.    HOWARD. 

ral  Howard,  who  has  been  surnamed  the  Havelock  of 
America,  is  another. 

Oliver  Otis  Howard  was  born  in  Leeds,  Maine,  Nov. 
8th,  1830.  His  father  was  a  thrifty  and  independent 
farmer.  The  boy  lived  at  home  until  he  was  ten, 
when  his  father  dying,  an  uncle,  Hon.  John  Otis,  of 
Hallowell,  took  charge  of  him.  He  now  attended 
school,  went  through  Bowdoin  College,  and  then  en- 
tered the  West  Point  Academy,  graduating  there  in 
1854,  fourth  in  general  standing  of  his  class.  Begin- 
ning, as  usual,  as  brevet  second  lieutenant,  he  was 
assigned  to  the  ordnance  department;  and  in  1856 
was  chief  ordnance  officer  in  Florida,  during  a  cam- 
paign against  the  Indians  there.  He  worked  steadily 
on  in  his  profession,  and  at  the  beginning  of  the  war 
was  assistant  professor  of  mathematics  at  West  Point, 
and  being  desirous  to  accept  the  command  of  a  vol- 
unteer regiment  from  his  own  State,  asked  leave 
from  the  War  Department  to  do  so,  and  was  refused. 
On  this  he  resigned  his  commission,  and  the  Governor 
of  Maine,  in  the  end  of  May,  1861,  appointed  him 
colonel  of  the  Third  Maine  Volunteers,  which  was  the 
first  three  years'  regiment  from  that  State. 

At  Bull  Run,  he  commanded  a  brigade,  being  sen- 
ior colonel  on  the  field,  and  for  good  conduct  there, 
was  in  the  following  September  commissioned  briga- 
dier-general of  volunteers.  In  December  he  was 
placed  in  General  Sumner's  command ;  and  he  remain- 
ed in  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  until  the  latter  part 
of  September,  1863,  when,  having  risen  to  the  com- 
mand of  the  Eleventh  Army  Corps,  that  and  Slocum's 


CALMNESS   ON   THE   BATTLE-FIELD.  449 

corps,  both  under  Hooker,  were  sent  to  reinforce  the 
army  at  Chattanooga. 

During  this  time  General  Howard  was  present  in  all 
the  chief  battles  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac.  At 
Fair  Oaks,  on  the  Peninsula,  he  was  twice  wounded 
in  the  right  arm,  and  had  to  have  his  arm  amputated ; 
but  he  got  back  in  season  for  the  next  battle — that  of 
the  second  Bull  Run.  At  Antietam,  at  Fredericksburg, 
at  Chancellorsville,  he  was  present  and  fought  his  com- 
mand to  the  uttermost.  At  Gettysburg,  Howard's 
troops  held  the  key  of  the  position,  the  cemetery ;  and 
a  soldier  who  was  in  the  field  with  him  in  that  tre- 
mendous fight,  in  speaking  of  his  extreme  calmness 
and  coolness  under  fire,  said,  "  General  Howard  stood 
there  as  if  nothing  at  all  was  the  matter.  He  never 
takes  stimulants,  either.  Most  of  the  officers  do,  but 
he  never  does.  He  was  so  calm  because  he  was  a 
Christian."  Colonel  Bowman,  in  s^^eakiug  of  this 
same  trait  in  General  Howard,  testifies  to  the  same 
point;  observing  that  he  is  "careless  of  exposing  his 
person  in  battle,  to  an  extent  that  would  be  attributa- 
ble to  rashness  or  fatalism  if  it  were  not  known  to 
spring  from  religion." 

During  his  campaigns  with  Sherman  he  was  a  most 
trustworthy  and  serviceable  commander;  singularly 
cool  and  fearless  in  battle,  and  most  prompt  and  thor- 
ough in  the  performance  of  whatever  duty  was  im- 
posed upon  him.  After  accompanying  Sherman  in 
his  march  for  the  relief  of  Burnside,  General  Howard 
served  in  the  Atlanta  campaign  in  command  of  the 
Fourth  Army  Corps ;  after  the  death  of  General  Mc- 

Pherson,  he  succeeded  him. in  the  important  command 
28 


450  OLIVER    O.    HOWARD. 

of  the  Army  of  the  Tennessee ;  and  in  Sherman's 
Great  March,  he  was  placed  in  command  of  the  right 
wing,  one  of  the  two  into  which  Sherman's  force  was 
divided,  and  in  this  position  served  until  the  end  of 
the  war. 

General  Sherman  quickly  liked  his  trusty  and  help- 
ful subordinate,  and  has  repeatedly  paid  high  compli- 
ments to  his  soldierly  and  moral  excellence.  At  the 
end  of  the  Chattanooga  campaign,  for  instance,  in  re- 
porting to  Gen.  Grant,  he  said,  "In  General  Howard 
throughout  I  found  a  polished  and  Christian  gentle- 
man, exhibiting  the  highest  and  most  chivalrous  traits 
of  the  soldier."  Colonel  Bowman  speaks  of  General 
Howard's  practice  of  Christian  observances  in  the 
army  with  a  curious  sort  of  admiration  which  sufii- 
ciently  shows  how  uncommon  it  was,  at  least  among 
officers  of  high  grade.     He  says : 

"General  Howard,  it  is  well  known,  has  been  pious 
and  exemplary  from  his  boyhood,  was  ever  faithful 
and  devoted  in  the  discharge  of  his  religious  duties, 
and  this  even  while  a  student  at  West  Point.  He  car- 
ried his  religious  principles  with  him  into  the  army, 
and  was  guided  and  governed  by  them  in  all  his  rela- 
tions with  his  officers  and  men.  No  matter  who  was 
permitted  to  share  his  mess  or  partake  of  his  repast, 
whether  the  lowest  subaltern  of  his  command  or  Gen- 
eral Sherman  himself,  no  one  thought  to  partake,  if 
General  Howard  were  present,  without  first  the  invo- 
cation of  the  Divine  blessing,  himself  usually  leading, 
like  the  father  of  a  family.  General  Sherman  seems 
greatly  to  have  admired  the  Christian  character  of 
General  Howard,     *     «  .  *     ^nd  not  only  as  a  Chris- 


REPROVES   THE    SWEARING    TEAMSTER.  451 

tian  but  as  a  soldier,  preferring  liim  and  promoting 
him  to  the  command  of  one  of  his  armies."  President 
Lincohi  also  valued  him  very  highly,  and  was  his  im- 
movable friend. 

General  Howard's  unconditional  devotion  to  duty 
was  very  strongly  shown  in  the  use  he  made  of  his 
time  while  disabled  from  military  duty  just  after  the 
loss  of  his  arm.  One  of  his  companions  in  the  service 
has  described  how — 

"Weak  and  fainting  from  hemorrhage  and  the  se- 
vere shock  his  system  had  sustained,  the  next  day 
he  started  for  his  home  in  Maine.  He  remained  there 
only  two  months,  during  which  time  he  was  not  idle. 
Visiting  various  localities  in  his  native  State,  he  made 
patriotic  appeals  to  the  people  to  come  forward  and 
sustain  the  government.  Pale,  emaciated,  and  with 
one  sleeve  tenantless,  he  stood  up  before  them,  the 
embodiment  of  all  that  is  good  and  true  and  noble  in 
manhood.  He  talked  to  them  as  only  one  truly  loyal 
can  talk — as  one  largely  endowed  with  that  patriotism 
which  is  a  heritage  of  New  England  blood.  Modesty, 
sincerity,  and  earnestness  characterized  his  addresses, 
and  his  fervent  appeals  drew  hundreds  of  recruits 
around  the  national  standard." 

Howard's  reply  to  the  swearing  teamster  was  a  good 
instance  of  kind  but  decided  reproof,  of  just  the  sort 
that  will  do  good  if  any  will.     The  story  is  this : 

"On  one  occasion,  a  wagon-master,  whose  teams 
were  floundering  through  the  bottomless  mud  of  a 
Georgia  swamp,  became  exasperated  at  the  unavoida- 
ble delay,  and  indulged  in  such  a  torrent  of  profanity 
as  can  only  be  heard  in  the  army  or  men  of  his  class. 


452  OLIVER    O.    HOWAED. 

General  Howard  quietly  approached,  unperceived  by 
the  offender,  and  was  an  unwilling  listener  to  the  blas- 
phemous words.  The  wagon-master,  on  turning 
around,  saw  his  general  in  close  proximity,  and  made 
haste  to  apologize  for  his  profane  outburst,  by  saying, 
'Excuse  me,  General,  I  did  not  know  you  were  here.' 
The  General,  looking  a  reprimand,  replied,  'I  would 
prefer  that  you  abstain  from  swearing  from  a  higher 
and  better  motive  than  because  of  my  presence.' " 

In  May,  1865,  General  Howard  was  placed  at  the 
head  of  the  Freedmen's  Bureau ;  a  position  for  which 
he  was  probably  the  very  best  man  in  the  United 
States,  one  whose  extremely  noble  and  benevolent 
purpose  was  wholly  in  harmony  with  the  loftiest  traits 
of  his  own  character,  and  whose  peculiar  difficulties 
were  such  as  he  was  exactly  the  man  to  encounter,  by 
nature,  education  and  official  position. 

By  imagining  one's  self  to  have  passed  forward  in 
history  for  a  century  or  two  centuries,  and  to  be  taking 
such  a  backward  perspective  view  of  the  southern 
rebellion  as  such  an  advance  would  give,  any  mind  of 
historic  qualities  will  perceive  more  clearly  than  in 
any  other  way  the  falling  off  and  disappearance  of  the 
minor  circumstances  of  the  great  struggle,  and  the 
few  great  features  that  remain — the  central  facts,  the 
real  meanings  of  the  war.  Of  all  these,  that  which 
will  remain  most  important  is,  the  escape  from  their 
modern  Egypt  of  the  nation  of  the  slaves.  Lives  and 
deeds  of  individual  men  will  grow  obscure.  The  gi- 
gantic battles,  the  terrific  novelties,  the  vast  campaign- 
ing combinations  of  the  successive  chapters  of  the  war 
will  lose  their  present  strong  colors.     Even  the  fact  that 


CENTRAL   HISTORIC   FACT   OF   THE   WAR.  453 

part  of  tlie  white  population  of  the  United  States  sought 
in  vain  to  sever  their  political  union  with  the  rest,  will 
lose  its  present  foremost  place  in  the  story ;  for  it  will 
have  assumed  the  character  of  an  abortive  delusion ;  a 
temporary  struggle,  whose  pretended  reasons  were  so- 
phistical and  false,  whose  real  ones  were  kept  out  of  sight 
as  much  as  possible,  and  which  ended  in  the  speedy 
re-establishment  of  the  power  attacked.  But  the 
emancipation  of  the  slaves  is  an  eternal  epoch;  it 
marks  the  point  where  the  race  of  one  vast  continent, 
after  centuries  of  exile  into  another  continent  and  of 
the  most  degrading  subjection  to  another  race,  is  all 
at  once  let  out  into  civilization ;  brought  forth  from 
the  pens  of  beasts,  to  take  a  place  among  the  sons  of 
men.  Yet  more ;  they  are  admitted  to  take  a  place 
among  the  sons  of  God ;  for  American  slavery,  as  if 
with  the  devil's  own  cunning  and  cruel  power,  did 
really  not  only  exclude  the  slave  from  becoming  a  cit- 
izen, but  it  actually  excluded  him  from  the  power  of 
becoming  a  Christian.  The  emancipation  of  the  slaves 
was  even  more  than  the  organization  of  a  new  nation ; 
for  it  was  the  birth  into  humanity  of  a  new  race. 

This  view  of  the  case  is  naturally  even  now  not  ac- 
cepted by  large  numbers  of  persons.  It  was  a  matter 
of  course  that  still  larger  numbers  should  fail  to  under- 
stand it  in  the  day  of  it.  President  Lincoln  himself 
apparently  felt  more  hope  than  expectation  upon  the 
subject ;  and  all  know  how  long  he  delayed,  how  un- 
endurably  slow  he  seemed  to  far-sighted  lovers  of  hu- 
manity, before  he  issued  his  great  proclamation.  But 
there  are  a  few  men,  who  possess  at  once  a  powerful 
instinct  of  benevolence  and  an  intuitive  comprehen- 


454  OLIVER    0.    HOWARD. 

sion  of  the  present  and  the  future — qualities  whicli 
naturally  go  together,  because  they  are  alike  pure,  lofty, 
dependent  upon  peculiarly  noble  organizations.  As 
soon  as  the  progress  of  the  war  rendered  any  consid- 
erable number  of  freedmen  accessible  for  any  perma- 
nently useful  purpose,  societies  began  at  once  to  be  or- 
ganized in  the  North  to  help  the  freedman  towards  his 
rightful  standing  of  an  intelligent  Christian  citizenship. 
The  first  of  them  were  organized  in  Boston,  New  York, 
and  Philadelphia,  in  consequence  of  the  information 
given  by  General  Sherman,  Commodore  Dupout,  and 
the  able  Treasury  Agent,  Mr.  E.  L.  Pierce,  of  the  sit- 
uation of  the  freedmen  on  the  Sea  Islands  of  Georgia 
and  South  Carolina.  Several  societies  or  "  commis- 
sions "  were  established,  all  of  which — except  some 
ecclesiastical  ones — are  now  operating  in  conjunction 
as  "  The  American  Freedmen's  Union  Commission." 
The  "  Bureau  of  Refugees,  Freedmen  and  Abandoned 
Lands,"  commonly  called  the  Freedmen's  Bureau,  was 
created  by  an  act  of  Congress  passed  in  March,  1865, 
and  in  form  received  the  freedmen  into  the  express 
protection  and  care  of  the  Government ;  and  its  crea- 
tion was  to  a  considerable  extent  if  not  altogether  the 
result  of  the  efforts  of  the  energetic  men  who  had  es- 
tablished the  various  private  commissions.  It  is  pos- 
sible that  the  Bureau  might  have  been  earlier  estab- 
lished, had  the  right  man  been  found  to  take  charge 
of  it.  When  General  Howard  was  thought  of,  at  the 
conclusion  of  the  war,  it  was  felt  that  he  was  in  every 
respect  most  suitable.  His  lofty  views  of  duty ;  his 
habits  of  orderly  obedience  and  orderly  command ; 
the  facilities  of  his  high  military  position  for  dealing 


"WORK   OF    THE    FREEDMEN's   BUREAU.  455 

■with  the  body  of  assistants  it  was  contemplated  to 
secure  from  the  army  ;  and  above  all,  his  calm,  steady, 
kindly  ways,  and  his  rare  characteristic  and  complete 
sympathy  with  the  missionary  object  of  securing  a  real 
Christian  citizenship  for  the  unfortunate  colored  race, 
were  just  the  qualities  that  must  have  been  put  to- 
gether if  a  man  was  to  have  been  constructed  on  pur- 
pose for  the  place. 

General  Howard  has  been  most  earnestly  at  work  in 
this  position  ever  since,  amid  great  difficulties  and  ob- 
structions, but  with  unfailing  faith  and  industry  ;  and 
although  it  is  easy  to  see  how  far  more  of  his  great 
task  would  have  been  at  this  day  accomplished  had  the 
white  people  of  the  South,  and  the  Government  itself 
helped  the  Bureau  earnestly  and  in  good  faith,  yet 
very  great  good  has  already  been  done. 

Doubtless  the  freed  people  have  in  many  things  been 
faulty.  It  would  be  strange  indeed  if  a  whole  race 
could  in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye,  put  off  the  bad  hab- 
its burned  and  ingrained  into  the  very  texture  of  their 
bodies  and  minds,  by  a  heavy  tyranny  of  two  centu- 
ries and  a  half  Generations  of  freedom  must  pass  be- 
fore the  evils  can  wholly  disappear  that  generations  of 
slavery  have  systematically  and  powerfully  cultivated. 
But  already,  to  a  very  great  degree  (to  use  the  words 
of  a  recent  comprehensive  summary  of  the  history  of 
the  Bureau,)  "labor  has  been  reorganized,  justice  has 
been  secured,  systems  of  education  *  *  *  have 
been  established,  the  transition  period  from  slavery  to 
liberty  has  been  safely  passed,  and  the  freed  people 
have  emero-ed  from  their  state  of  bonda2:e  into  that  of 
the  liberty  of  American  citizenship." 


456  OLIVER   0.    HOWARD. 

The  operations  of  the  Bureau  and  of  the  Commis- 
sion which  works  in  union  with  it,  as  a  sort  of  unoffi- 
cial counterpart — a  draught-horse  hitched  on  outside 
the  thills — have  sought  four  objects  for  the  freed- 
men,  in  the  following  order :  1.  To  provide  for  their 
temporal  wants ;  for  if  they  had  no  food  for  to-day, 
and  no  clothes  nor  roofs  to  shelter  them,  they  would 
be  out  of  the  world  before  they  could  learn  their 
letters,  earn  a  dollar,  or  learn  to  obey  the  law ;  2. 
To  promote  justice  ;  3.  To  reorganize  labor ;  4  To 
provide  education. 

In  his  difficult  and  laborious  position.  General  How- 
ard has  had  to  act  without  the  help  of  any  public  funds, 
by  using  temporarily  certain  species  of  abandoned 
property,  and  by  means  of  details  of  officers  and  men 
from  the  army,  who  have  done  their  Vork  in  the 
Bureau  as  part  of  their  military  duty,  and  without 
other  than  their  usual  pay.  The  good  accomplished 
has  been  rather  by  the  use  of  influence,  by  forbear- 
ance, by  the  exercise  of  the  minimum  of  absolute  au- 
thority. But  in  spite  of  the  good  intentions  of  Con- 
gress, the  help  of  the  Government  of  the  United  States, 
which,  so  far  as  its  action  upon  the  Freedmen'sBureau  is 
concerned,  is  exclusively  the  executive,  has  not  in  any 
complete  sense  been  given  either  to  the  freedmen  them- 
selves, in  their  toilsome  upward  road,  nor  to  those  who 
have  been  striving  to  aid  them  in  the  ascent ;  but  it 
has  rather  been  felt  as  a  cold,  sullen  and  grudging 
sufferance,  verging  even  into  a  pretty  distinct  mani- 
festation of  an  enmity  like  that  of  the  worse  class  of 
unfriendly  southern  whites,  and  showing   more  than 


RESULTS   OF    THE    BUREAU.  457 

one  token  of  an  intention  to  destroy  the  Bureau  and 
leave  the  freedmen  helpless  as  soon  as  possible. 

General  Howard  has  done  all  that  could  be  done, 
against  these  obstacles.  It  is  easy  to  see  what  constant 
exercise  he  must  need,  of  the  Christian  virtues  of  for- 
bearance, patience,  kindness,  and  the  overcoming  of 
evil  with  good,  as  well  as  of  the  moral  qualities  of 
honor  and  justice,  and  the  soldierly  attainments  of  or- 
der, promptitude  and  industry.  With  some  of  these 
he  must  meet  the  angry  tricks  of  white  enemies ;  with 
some,  the  pitiful  faults — which  are  misfortunes  rather — 
faults  of  the  freedmen  themselves — idleness,  falsehood, 
dishonesty,  disorder,  incapacity,  fickleness ;  with  others 
stni,  the  inactive  resistance  of  his  superiors,  and  the 
cumbrous  machinery  of  an  organization  which  the  na- 
ture of  the  case  prevents  from  coming  into  good  work- 
ing shape. 

In  spite  of  all  obstacles,  the  Missionary  General  and 
his  Bureau  and  the  Commission  have  done  much.  Up 
to  the  first  day  of  1867,  fourteen  hundred  schools  had 
been  established,  with  sixteen  hundred  and  fifty-eight 
teachers  and  over  ninety  thousand  pupils  ;  besides  782 
Sabbath  Schools  with  over  70,000  pupils ;  and  the 
freedmen  were  then  paying  towards  the  support  of 
these  schools,  out  of  their  own  scanty  earnings,  after 
the  rate  of  more  than  eleven  thousand  dollars  a  month. 
Within  one  year,  they  had  accumulated  in  their  sav- 
ings bank,  $616,802.54.  Many  of  them  have  bought 
and  possess  homesteads  of  their  own.  Their  univer- 
sal obedience  to  law  would  be  remarkable  in  any  com- 
munity in  the  world,  and  under  such  treatment  as  they 
have  experienced  from  their  former  masters  since  the 


458  OLIVER    0.    HOWARD. 

war,  would  have  been  simply  impossible  for  the  body 
of  freemen  in  the  most  law-abiding  of  the  Northern 
States,  And  above  all,  they  are  with  one  accord  most 
zealous,  most  diligent  and  most  successful,  in  laboring 
to  obtain  the  religious  and  intellectual  culture  which 
alone  can  fit  them  for  their  new  position,  as  self-gov- 
erning citizens  of  a  free  country. 

The  views  of  intelligent  army  officers,  of  the  task 
which  General  Howard  undertook  in  accepting  this 
post  and  of  his  fitness  for  it,  are  not  without  interest. 
Col.  Bowman  thus  describes  the  work : 

"  He  was  placed  at  the  head  of  a  species  of  Poor 
Law  Board,  with  vague  powers  to  define  justice  and 
execute  loving  kindness  between  four  millions  of 
emancipated  slaves  and  all  the  rest  of  mankind.  He 
was  to  be  not  exactly  a  military  commander,  nor  yet 
a  judge  of  a  Court  of  Chancery ;  but  a  sort  of  com- 
bination of  the  religious  missionary  and  school  com- 
missioner, with  power  to  feed  and  instruct,  and  this 
for  an  empire  half  as  large  as  Europe.  But  few  offi- 
cers of  the  army  would  have  had  the  moral  courage 
to  accept  such  an  appointment,  and  fewer  still  were  as 
well  fitted  to  fill  it  and  discharge  one-half  its  complica- 
ted and  multifarious  duties." 

When  General  Howard,  on  accepting  his  new  post, 
advised  his  old  commander  by  letter,  General  Sher- 
man, in  a  friendly  reply,  thus  wrote  : 

"  I  hardly  know  whether  to  congratulate  you  or  not, 
but  of  one  thing  you  may  rest  assured,  that  you  pos- 
sess my  entire  confidence,  and  I  cannot  imagine  that 
matters  that  may  involve  the  future  of  four  millions 
of  souls  could  be  put  in   more  charitable  and  more 


GENERAL   HOWARD 's   ABILITIES.  459 

conscientious  hands.  So  far  as  man  can  do,  I  believe 
you  will,  but  I  fear  you  have  Hercules'  task.  God 
has  limited  the  power  of  man,  and  though,  in  the  kind- 
ness of  your  heart,  you  would  alleviate  all  the  ills  of 
humanity,  it  is  not  in  your  power ;  nor  is  it  in  your 
power  to  fulfill  one-tenth  part  of  the  expectations  of 
those  who  framed  the  bureau  for  the  freedmen,  refu- 
gees and  abandoned  estates.  It  is  simply  impracticable. 
Yet  you  can  and  will  do  all  the  good  one  man  may,  and 
that  is  all  you  are  called  on  as  a  man  and  a  Christian  to 
do ;  and  to  that  extent  count  on  me  as  a  friend  and 
fellow-soldier  for  counsel  and  assistance."  General 
Sherman  more  than  once  repeated  to  others  similar 
testimonies  of  his  faith  in  General  Howard. 

General  Howard  has  not  the  vast  intellect  and  bril- 
liant genius  of  General  Sherman,  nor  the  massive 
strength  and  immense  tenacious  will  of  General  Grant, 
But  he  has  qualities  which  are  even  loftier ;  name- 
ly, those  which  are  the  sure  basis  for  such  respect  and 
confidence  as  General  Sherman's;  which  alone  have 
enabled  him  to  accomplish  what  he  has  in  an  enter- 
prise wholly  discouraging  on  any  merely  human  prin- 
ciples. Grant  and  Sherman,  in  what  they  have  done, 
had  at  their  backs  a  people  far  more  intelligent,  reso- 
lute and  wealthy,  than  those  against  whom  they  warred ; 
but  a  man  like  Howard,  whose  soul  opens  upward  and 
takes  in  the  unselfish  strength  and  love  and  faith  of 
Almighty  God,  can  do  great  things  for  humanity  utc- 
spective  of  money  and  majorities. 


CHAPTEE    XVI. 

WILLIAM  ALFRED  BUCKINGHAM. 

The  Buckinghams  an  Original  Puritan  Family — Rev.  Thomas  Buckingham — 
Gov.  Buckingham's  Father  and  Mother — Lebanon,  the  Birthplace  of  Five 
Governors — Gov.  Buckingham's  Education — He  Teaches  Scliool — His  Natural 
Executive  Tendency — His  Business  Career — His  Extreme  Punctuality  in  Pay- 
ments— His  Business  and  ReUgious  Character — His  Interest  in  the  Churches 
and  Schools — His  Benefactions  in  those  Directions — His  Political  Course — He 
Accepts  Municipal  but  not  Legislative  Offices — A  Member  of  the  Peace  Con- 
ference— He  Himself  Equips  the  Fkst  State  Militia  in  the  War — His  Zealous 
Co-operation  with  the  Government — Sends  Gen.  i\jken  to  "Washington — The 
Isolation  of  that  City  from  the  North — Gov.  Buckingham's  Policy  for  the  "War; 
Letter  to  Mr.  Lincoln — His  Views  on  Emancipation ;  Letter  to  Mr.  Lincoln — 
Anecdote  of  the  Temperance  Governor's  Staff. 

In  writing  tlie  history  of  men  of  our  time,  we  feel 
that  we  are  only  making  a  selection  of  a  few  from 
among  many.  We  have  given  the  character  of  one 
State  Governor — we  could  give  many  more,  but  must 
confine  ourselves  to  only  two  examples.  William  Al- 
fred Buckingham,  for  eight  years  Governor  of  Con- 
necticut, and  under  whose  administration  the  State 
passed  through  the  war,  may  be  held  a  worthy  repre- 
sentative of  the  wisdom,  energy  and  patriotism  of  our 
state  magistracy  in  the  time  of  the  great  trials. 

Gov.  Buckingham  is  of  the  strictest  old  Puritan 
stock.  The  first  of  the  name  in  this  country  was 
Thomas  Buckingham,  one  of  the  colony  that  planted 
New  Haven,  Conn.,  but  who  soon  removed  to  Milford 
in  that  State,  where  he  was  one  of  the  "Seven  Pil- 

463 


464  WILLIAM   A.    BUCKINGHAM. 

lars"  of  the  church  there,  as  originally  organized.  His 
son,  Rev.  Thos.  Buckingham,  was  minister  of  Saybrook, 
one  of  the  founders  of  Yale  College,  and  one  of  the 
moderators  of  the  Synod  that  framed  the  "  Saybrook 
Platform."  Through  this  branch  of  the  family,  this 
Governor  of  Connecticut  is  descended,  his  father  hav- 
ing been  born  in  Saybrook. 

William  Alfred  Buckingham,  the  son  of  Samuel  and 
Joanna  (Matson)  Buckingham,  was  born  in  Lebanon, 
Conn.,  May  28,  1804.  His  father  was  a  thrifty  farmer, 
a  deacon  in  the  church,  a  man  of  remarkably  sound 
judgment  and  common  sense,  and  a  public  spirited 
man,  abounding  in  hospitality.  His  mother  was  one 
of  those  women  in  whom  the  strong  qualities  of  the 
Puritan  stock  come  to  a  flowering  and  fruitage  of  a 
celestial  quality,  a  rare  union  of  strength  and  sound- 
ness. She  had  a  mother's  ambition  for  her  children, 
but  always  directed  to  the  very  highest  things.  "  What- 
ever else  you  are,  I  want  you  to  be  Christians,"  was 
one  of  her  daily  household  sayings.  Her  memory  is 
cherished  in  the  records  of  many  words  and  deeds  of 
love  and  beneficence,  written  not  with  ink  and  pen, 
"  but  in  fleshy  tables  of  the  heart,"  in  all  the  region 
where  she  lived. 

The  little  town  of  Lebanon,  like  many  others  of  the 
smaller  New  England  towns,  had  a  fine  Academy,  which 
enjoyed  the  culture  of  some  of  those  strong  and  spicy 
old  New  England  school  masters,  that  were  a  genera- 
tion worthy  of  more  praise  and  celebration  than  the 
world  knows  of.  For  that  reason  perhaps,  this  little 
town  of  Lebanon  has  given  to  the  State  of  Connec- 
ticut five  Governors,  who  have  held  that  State  office 


GOV.    BUCKINGHAM'S   YOUTH.  465 

for  37  years  out  of  the  past  one  hundred — more  than 
one-third  of  the  century. 

Governor  Buckingham's  education  was  a  striking 
specimen  of  New  England.  It  was  based  first  on  the 
soil,  in  the  habits  and  associations  of  a  large,  thriving, 
well  conducted  farm.  It  was  nourished  up  at  those 
rural  Academies,  which  are  fountain  memorials  of 
the  enthusiasm  for  education,  of  our  Puritan  fathers. 
He  had  a  special  taste  for  mathematics,  which,  united 
with  the  promptings  of  a  vigorous  and  energetic  phys- 
ical nature,  and  love  of  enterprise,  led  him  to  desire 
the  profession  of  a  practical  surveyor,  a  profession 
which  in  those  days  had  some  state  patronage,  and 
was  attractive  to  young  men  of  that  class  of  char- 
acter. At  the  age  of  eighteen,  he  taught  dis- 
trict school,  in  Lyme,  and  gave  such  satisfaction 
that  his  services  were  earnestly  sought  for  another 
year.  He  returned,  however,  to  the  practical  labors 
of  his  father's  farm,  and  for  the  last  three  years  per- 
formed as  much  work  as  any  of  the  laborers  whom  his 
father  hired.  His  nature  seemed  to  incline  him  rather 
to  a  dealing  with  the  practical  and  physical  forces  of  the 
world,  and  so  he  wisely  forbore  that  classical  career 
which  would  have  occupied  four  years  of  his  life  in  a 
college,  and  began  the  career  of  a  man  of  business  at 
once,  entering  a  dry  goods  store  in  Norwich  as  clerk, 
at  twenty.  After  two  years  spent  there,  and  a  short 
experience  in  a  wholesale  store  in  New  York,  he  es- 
tablished himself  in  business  as  a  dry  goods  merchant 
at  Norwich,  Conn.  From  this  time  his  career  has  been 
a  successful  one  in  the  business  circles  of  the  country. 
Enterprise,  prudence,  thrift,  order  and  exact  punctu- 


466  WILLIAM   A.    BUCKINGHAM. 

ality  and  spotless  integrity  have  given  him  a  name 
worth  any  amount  of  money.  In  1830  he  commenced 
the  manufacture  of  ingrain  carpeting,  which  he  con- 
tinued for  18  years.  In  1848  he  closed  up  his  dry 
goods  business,  discontinued  the  manufacturing  of  car- 
peting, and  engaged  in  the  fabrication  of  India  Rub- 
ber, a  business  then  in  its  infancy. 

From  that  time  to  the  present,  he  has  been  the 
treasurer,  and  an  active  business  director  of  the 
Hay  ward  Rubber  Company,  a  company  located  in  Col- 
chester, which  has  prosecuted  an  extensive  and  suc- 
cessful business.  He  is  now  a  stockholder  in  eight  or 
ten  manufacturing  companies,  to  the  general  manage- 
ment of  quite  a  number  of  which  he  gives  his  atten- 
tion. 

An  important  feature  in  his  character  in  these  re- 
lations is  his  great  business  accuracy  and  punctuality. 
With  an  extended  business  running  through  a  period 
of  forty  years,  only  two*  notes  drawn,  were  protested 
for  non-payment,  and  these  cases  occurred  when  he 
was  wholly  disabled  from  business  by  sickness.  It 
was  his  custom  always  to  remit  money  to  meet  notes 
due  in  New  York,  three  days  before  their  maturity. 
He  has  always  regarded  himself  as  under  obligations 
to  pay  his  debts  at  the  time  agreed  upon,  as  much  as 
to  pay  the  amount  due. 

His  unvarying  and  unfailing  accuracy  in  these  re- 
spects, had  given  him  a  character  which  enabled  him 
at  any  time  to  command  the  assistance  of  any  bank 
with  which  he  did  business.  His  name  was  good 
for  any  amount  of  resources.  This  particular  char- 
acteristic made  his  position  as  Governor  of  Connec- 


HIS   BUSINESS   AND    RELIGIOUS    CHARACTER.  467 

ticut,  in  the  sudden  crisis  of  the  war,  of  vital  value  to 
the  country. 

No  man  could  so  soon  command  those  material  re- 
sources which  are  the  sine  qua  non  of  war,  and  it  is 
one  of  many  good  Providences  that  the  state  of  Con- 
necticut at  this  crisis  was  so  manned.  Immediately 
on  the  news  of  the  war,  the  banks  of  the  state,  and 
business  men  in  all  parts,  sent  immediate  and  prompt 
word  to  him  that  he  might  command  their  utmost 
resources.  They  were  even  anxious  to  have  their 
capital  at  once  made  serviceable  in  the  emergency, 
and  they  felt  sure  in  doing  so  that  they  were  putting 
their  resources  into  the  hands  of  a  leader  every  way 
fitted  to  employ  them  to  the  best  advantage. 

Governor  Buckingham  is  well  known  as  an  exem- 
plary and  laborious  Christian,  a  devoted  friend  of  edu- 
cation, a  practical  and  consistent  temperance  man, 
and  proverbially  generous  in  his  charities  towards  these, 
and  every  other  good  cause.  And  it  has  probably 
been  due  to  this,  as  much  as  to  his  personal  and  official 
integrity,  that  he  has  been  so  popular  with  his  friends, 
and  claimed  such  respect  from  his  political  opponents. 
Indeed  nothing  could  have  been  more  respectful  and 
generous,  during  all  those  excited  political  canvasses 
which  belonged  to  his  public  life,  than  the  treatment 
his  private  character  received  from  those  who  were 
politically  opposed  to  him. 

His   own  strict  attention   to   the   proj^rieties   and 

courtesy's   of   life,    his   bland   and    urbane   manners 

may   go    a   long   way  towards   accounting    for    this 

result. 

29 


468  WILLIAM   A.    EUCKIXGHAM. 

In  1830  lie  united  with  the  Second  Congregational 
Church,  under  the  care  of  Rev.  Alfred  Mitchell,  and 
in  1838  made  a  report  to  the  Ecclesiastical  Society,  to 
show  the  necessity  of  organizing  a  new  church.  Such 
a  church  was  organized  four  years  after,  and  is  now 
known  as  the  Broadway  Congregational  Church.  From 
its  organization  to  the  present  time,  he  has  been 
one  of  its  deacons,  an  active  member,  and  a  liberal 
supporter.  He  gave  them  a  fine  organ  when  their 
present  church  building  was  completed,  and  has  lately 
erected  a  beautiful  chapel  for  one  of  their  Mission  Sab- 
bath Schools.  He  has  himself  been  a  Sabbath  School 
Teacher  for  the  last  thirty-seven  years,  except  during 
the  four  years  of  the  Rebellion. 

He  was  moderator  of  the  National  Congregational 
Council  held  iu  Boston,  in  1865. 

As  a  friend  of  Education,  he  earnestly  advocated  the 
consolidation  of  the  School  Districts  of  Norwich,  and 
a  system  of  graded  schools  to  be  open  to  all,  and  sup- 
ported by  a  tax  on  property,  and  he  was  permitted  to 
see  such  a  system  established  with  the  most  beneficial 
results.  He  was  deeply  interested  in  the  effort  to 
establish  the  Norwich  Free  Academy,  gave  his  per- 
sonal efforts  to  obtain  a  fund  for  its  endowment,  and 
has  contributed  an  amount  to  that  fund  second  only 
to  one  subscriber. 

Having  seen  the  extended  and  beneficial  influence 
which  Yale  College  has  exerted  and  is  exerting  over 
the  political  and  religious  interest  of  the  country,  he 
has  felt  it  a  privilege  and  a  duty  to  contribute  largely 
to  the  pecuniary  necessities  of  that  institution. 

He  has  given  a  permanent  fund  to  the  Broadway 


HIS   POLITICAL    CAREER.  469 

Congregational  Churcli  in  Norwich,  and  to  the  Con- 
gregational Church  in  Lebanon,  with  which  his 
parents  and  sisters  were  connected,  the  income  of 
which  is  to  be  used  for  the  pastor's  library.  Joseph 
Otis,  Esq.,  who  founded  a  public  library  in  Norwich, 
selected  him  for  one  of  the  trustees,  and  he  is  now 
President  of  the  Board. 

As  a  politician,  he  was  a  Whig.  In  1842  he  was 
the  candidate  of  that  party  for  a  seat  in  the  lower 
house  of  the  General  Assembly,  but  was  not  elected. 
He  was  afterwards  repeatedly  nominated  both  for  the 
House  of  Representatives  and  for  the  Senate,  but  de- 
clined such  nominations,  and  was  never  a  member  of  a 
legislative  body.  He  has,  however,  frequently  accept- 
ed municipal  offices ;  was  often  elected  a  member  of 
the  City  Council,  sometimes  occupying  the  seat  of  an 
alderman,  and  was  elected  Mayor  of  the  city  of  Nor- 
wich in  1849  and  1850,  and  again  in  the  years  1856 
and  1857.  When  the  Whig  party  was  broken  up,  he 
placed  himself  with  the  Republicans,  and  in  1858  was 
elected  Governor  of  the  State,  which  position  he  occu- 
pied eight  years,  and  four  of  them  were  the  years  of 
the  Rebellion. 

The  famous  Peace  Conference  met  at  Washington 
one  month  before  the  inauguration  of  Lincoln,  wherein 
were  represented  thirteen  of  the  free  States  and 
seven  of  the  slave  States,  for  the  purpose  of  con- 
sidering what  could  be  done  to  pacify  the  excited 
feelings  of  the  South,  and  preserve  the  existing 
Union. 

Governor  Buckingham  was  not   a  member  of  the 


470  WILLIAM  A.    BUCKINGHAM. 

conference,  but  appointed  the  commissioners  from 
Connecticut.  He  was  in  Washington  during  its  ses- 
sion, and  in  daily  intercourse  with  members  of  that 
body  from  all  parts  of  the  country,  and  understood 
their  views  of  questions  at  issue.  But  from  the  very 
first  he  was  of  opinion  that  the  state  of  things  had 
reached  a  place  where  further  compromise  was  an 
impossibility,  or  in  the  words  of  Lincoln,  the  Union 
must  now  become  either  in  effect  all  for  slavery  or  all 
for  freedom  in  its  general  drift.  So  this  peace  con- 
ference broke  up,  effecting  nothing. 

When  the  news  of  the  fall  of  Sumter  reached  Con- 
necticut, attended  by  the  Presidential  call  for  troops, 
the  State  Legislature  was  not  in  session.  Governor 
Buckingham,  however,  had  such  wide  financial  rela- 
tions as  enabled  him  immediately  to  command  the 
funds  for  equipping  the  militia  for  the  field. 

From  every  quarter  came  to  him  immediate  offers 
both  of  money  and  of  personal  services,  from  men  of 
the  very  first  standing  in  the  State — and  Connecticut, 
we  think,  may  say  with  honest  pride  that  no  men 
went  into  the  field  better  equipped,  more  thoroughly 
appointed  and  cared  for.  Governor  Buckingham  gave 
himself  heart  and  soul  to  the  work.  During  that  per- 
ilous week  when  Washington  stood  partially  isolated 
from  the  North,  by  the  uprising  of  rebellion  in  Mary- 
land, Governor  Buckingham,  deeply  sympathizing 
with  the  President,  dispatched  his  son-in-law,  Gen. 
Aiken,  who  with  great  enterprize  and  zeal  found  his 
way  through  the  ^obstructed  lines  to  Washington,  car- 
rying the  welcome  news  to  the  President  that  Connec- 
ticut was  rising  as  one  man,  and  that  all  her  men  and 


GEN.    AIKEN's   trip    TO    WASHINGTON.  471 

all  her  wealth  to  the  very  last  would  be  at  the  dispo- 
sal of  the  country. 

The  account  of  Gen.  Aiken's  ti'ip  to  Washington 
with  the  dispatches  for  the  government  there,  brings 
freshly  to  mind  the  intense  excitement  of  those  days, 
and  it  contains  some  very  striking  touches  of  descrip- 
tion of  the  state  of  things  at  Washington.     Gen.  Ai- 
ken left  Norwich  at  6  A.  M.,  on  Monday,  April  2 2d, 
1861 ;  on  reaching  Philadelphia  that  evening,  found 
that  city  extremely  stirred  up,  and  all  regular  commu- 
nication w^th  Washington  suspended ;  met  a  gentle- 
man who  wished  to  reach  Washington,  and  the  two 
spent  most  of  the  night  in  searching  for  the  means  of 
proceeding.    At  four  next  morning  they  got  permission 
to  set  out  on  a  special  train  with  a  Pennsylvania  regi- 
ment, and  after  a  very  slow  journey,  in  consequence 
of  the  danger  of  finding  the  track  torn  up,  reached 
Perryville,  on  the  Susquehanna,  at  ten.     Gen.  Butler 
had  carried  off  the  ferry-boats  to  Annapolis;  and  after 
delay  and  search,  our  two  travellers  hired  a  skiff  and 
crossed  to  Havre  de  Grace,  where  they  found,   not 
only  that  the  town  was  full  of  reports  of  railroads  and 
telegraphs  broken  up  in  all  directions,  but  that  there 
were   plenty   of    men   watching   to   see    how   many 
*'d — d  Yankees,"  as  they  called  them,  were  going  to- 
wards Washington.     Gen,  Aiken  and  his  friend,  how- 
ever, after  a  time,   chartered   a  covered  wagon  and 
rode  to  Baltimore,   arri\dng  about  9  1-2  P.  M.     The 
streets  were  brilliantly  lighted,   and   full  of  people, 
some  of  them  in  uniform,  and  most  of  them  wearing 
rebel  badges;  and   even  the  few  words  which    the 
travellers   heard  as  they  passed   along   the  crowded 


472  WILLIAM  A.    BUCKINGHAM. 

halls  of  their  hotel,  apprized  them  that  no  man  could 
avow  Unionism  there  and  preserve  his  life  in  safety 
for  a  moment.  They  accordingly  went  at  once  to 
their  rooms  and  kept  out  of  sight  until  morning,  when 
the  hotel  proprietor,  a  personal  friend  of  Gen.  Aiken's 
companion,  and  also  of  the  leading  Baltimore  rebels, 
procured  them  passes  signed  by  Gen.  Winder  and 
countersigned  by  Marshal  Kane.  Having  these,  they 
paid  $50  for  a  carriage  which  took  them  to  Washing- 
ton. Reaching  Washington  at  10  P.  M.  on  Wednes- 
day, Gen.  Aiken  found  its  silence  and  emptiness  a 
startling  contrast  to  the  hot-blooded  crowd  at  Balti- 
more.    He  says: 

"Half  a  dozen  people  in  the  hall  of  the  hotel 
crowded  around  to  ask  questions  about  the  North.  I 
then  began  to  realize  the  isolation  of  the  city."  Hur- 
rying to  Gen.  Scott's  head-quarters,  the  old  chief  was 
found  with  only  two  of  his  staff.  ''Upon  reading  the 
Governor's  letter,  he  rose  and  said  excitedly,  '  Sir, 
you  are  the  first  man  I  have  seen  with  a  written  dis- 
patch for  three  days.  I  have  sent  men  out  every  day 
to  bring  intelligence  of  the  northern  troops.  Not  one 
of  them  has  returned;  where  are  the  troops?'  The 
number  and  rapidity  of  his  questions,  and  his  very 
excited  manner,  gave  me  a  further  realization  of  the 
critical  nature  of  the  situation." 

Calling  on  Secretary  Cameron,  Gen.  Aiken  was  re- 
ceived very  much  in  the  same  manner.  A  friend  in 
one  of  the  Departments  "advised  very  strongly  against 
a  return  by  the  same  route,  as  my  arrival  ivas  hioiun., 
and  the  general  nature  of  my  business  suspected  by 


GEN.    AIKEn's   trip   TO    WASHINGTON.  473 

rebel  spies,  with  whom  the  city  abounded,  and  in 
some  quarters  least  suspected. 

"How  the  knowledge  of  my  affairs  could  have 
been  gained  has  always  been  a  mystery,  for  I  had  re- 
alized since  leaving  Philadelphia,  that  my  personal 
safety  depended  entirely  upon  secrecy  and  prudence. 

"At  10  A.  M.  I  called  on  the  President,  and  saw 
him  for  the  first  time  in  my  life.  It  was  an  interview 
I  can  never  forget.  No  office-seekers  were  about  'the 
presence'  that  day — there  was  no  delay  in  getting  an 
audience.  Mr.  Lincoln  was  alone,  seated  in  his  busi- 
ness room  up  stairs,  looking  toward  Arlington  Heights 
through  a  widely  opened  window.  A.gainst  the  case- 
ment stood  a  very  long  spy-glass,  which  he  had  obvi- 
ously just  been  using.  I  gave  him  all  the  information 
I  could,  from  what  I  had  seen  and  heard  during  my 
journey. 

"He  seemed  depressed  beyond  measure,  as  he  ask- 
ed, slovvdy,  and  with  great  emphasis,  'What  is  the 
North  about  ?  Do  they  know  our  condition  ?'  I  said, 
'No,  they  certainly  did  not  when  I  left.'  This  was 
true  enough. 

"He  spoke  of  the  non-arrival  of  the  troops  under 
Gen.  Butler,  and  of  having  had  no  intelligence  from 
them  for  two  or  three  days.     *     *     * 

"I  have  referred  to  the  separation  of  the  city  from 
the  North.  In  no  one  of  many  ways  was  it  brought 
home  more  practically  to  my  mind  than  in  this :  The 
funds  in  my  possession  were  in  New  York  city  bank 
notes.  Their  value  in  "W  ashington  had  suddenly  and 
totally  departed.  They  were  good  for  their  weight  in 
paper,  and  no  more.     During  my  interview  with  the 


474  WILLIAII   A.    BUCKINGHAM. 

President,  my  financial  dilemma  was  referred  to.  I 
remarked  that  I  had  not  a  cent,  although  my  pockets 
were  full.  He  instantly  perceived  my  meaning,  and 
kindly  put  me  in  possession  of  such  an  amount  of 
specie  as  I  desired.  *  *  *  Having  delivered  my 
dispatch,  and  the  Governor's  words  of  encouragement, 
and  enjoyed  an  interview  protracted,  by  the  Presi- 
dent's desire,  beyond  ordinary  length,  I  left." 

The  New  York  Seventh  Regiment  reached  the  city 
just  as  Gen.  Aiken  had  walked  from  the  President's 
house  to  the  State  Department ;  and  when  the  flag 
announcing  their  arrival  at  the  Baltimore  station  was 
hoisted,  says  Gen.  Aiken,  "such  a  stampede  of  hu- 
manity, loyal  and  rebel,  as  was  witnessed  that  hour 
in  the  direction  of  the  Baltimore  Railway  station,  can 
only  be  imagined  by  those  who,  like  myself,  took  part 
in  it.  One  glance  at  the  gray  jackets  of  the  Seventh 
put  hope  in  the  place  of  despondency  in  my  breast." 

Gen.  Aiken  returned  by  taking  a  private  convey- 
ance, and  obscure  roads,  until,  north  of  the  Pennsylva- 
nia line,  he  reached  a  railroad,  and  at  Hanover,  the 
first  telegraph  station,  reported  progress  to  Governor 
Buckingham,  having  been  unable  to  communicate 
with  him  during  four  days,  and  not  having  seen  the 
United  States  flag  once  during  the  whole  trip  from 
Philadelphia  around  to  the  Pennsylvania  line,  except 
on  the  Capitol  at  Washington.  Gen.  Aiken,  in  con- 
cluding his  account,  says,  undoubtedly  with  correct- 
ness, "There  has  been  no  hour  since  that  when 
messages  of  sympathy,  encouragement  and  aid 
from  the  loyal  Governor  of  a  loyal  State  were  more 


HIS   POLICY    FOR    THE    WAR.  475 

truly  needed  or  more  effective  npon  the  mind  of  our 
late  President,  than  those  1  had  the  honor  to  deliver." 
The  views  of  Governor  Buckingham  as  to  the  policy 
to  be  pursued  with  the  rebellion  may  best  be  learned 
from  the  following  letter,  which  he  addi'essed  to  the 
President,  dated  June  25th,  1861 : 

"Sir — The  condition  of  our  government  is  so  crit- 
ical that  the  people  of  this  State  are  looking  with 
deep  interest  to  measures  which  you  may  recommend 
to  Congress,  and  to  the  course  which  that  body  may 
pursue  when  it  shall  convene  on  the  4th  day  of  July 
next. 

"You  will  not  therefore  think  me  presuming  if  I 
present  for  your  consideration  the  views  entertained 
by  a  large  majority  of  our  citizens,  especially  when  I 
assure  you  that  if  they  are  not  approved  by  your 
judgment,  I  shall  regard  it  as  evidence  that  their 
importance  is  over-estimated. 

"  There  are  to-day  probably  more  than  three  hundred 
thousand  men  organized,  armed  and  in  rebellion 
against  the  general  government.  Millions  of  other 
citizens,  who  have  been  protected  by  its  power,  now 
deny  its  authority,  and  refuse  obedience  to  its  laws. 
Multitudes  of  others,  who  prize  the  blessings  -which 
they  have  received  under  its  policy,  are  so  overawed 
by  the  manifestations  of  passionate  violence  which 
surround  them,  that  their  personal  security  is  found  in 
suppressing  their  opinions,  and  floating  with  the  cur- 
rent into  the  abyss  of  anarchy.  The  person  and 
property  and  liberty  of  every  citizen  are  in  peril.  This 
is  no  ordinary  rebellion.     It  is  a  mob   on  a  gigantic 


476  WILLIAM  A.    BUCKINGHAM. 

scale,  and  should  be  met  and  suppressed  by  a  power 
corresponding  with  its  magnitude. 

"The  obligations  of  the  government  to  the  loyal, 
the  principles  of  equity  and  justice,  the  claims  of  hu- 
manity, civilization  and  religion,  unite  in  demanding  a 
force  sufiicient  to  drive  the  rebels  from  every  rendez- 
vous, to  influence  them  to  return  to  their  homes  and 
their  lawful  employments,  to  seize  their  leaders  and 
bring  them  before  the  proper  tribunals  for  trial,  and 
to  inflict  upon  them  the  punishment  justly  due  for 
their  crimes.  In  your  message  to  Congress  I  trust 
you  will  ask  for  authority  to  organize  and  arm  a  force 
of  four  or  five  hundred  thousand  men,  for  the  purpose 
of  quelling  the  rebellion,  and  for  an  appropriation 
from  the  public  treasury  sufficient  for  their  support. 
Let  legislation  upon  every  other  subject  be  regarded 
as  out  of  time  and  place,  and  the  one  great  object 
of  suppressing  the  rebellion  be  pursued  by  the 
administration  with  vigor  and  firmness,  without  taking 
counsel  of  our  fears,  and  without  listening  to  any 
proposition  or  suggestion  which  may  emanate  from 
rebels  or  their  representatives,  until  the  authority  of 
the  government  shall  be  respected,  its  laws  enforced, 
and  its  supremacy  acknowledged  in  every  section  of 
our  country. 

****** 

"To  secure  such  Mgh  public  interests,  the  State  of 
Connecticut  will  bind  her  destinies  more  closely  to 
those  of  the  general  government,  and  in  adopting  the 
measures  suggested  she  will  renewedly  pledge  all  her 


mS   VIEWS   ON   EMANCIPATION.  477 

pecuniary  and  physical  resources,  and  all  her  moral 
power. 

"I  am,  dear  sir,  yours, 

with  high  consideration, 
(signed,)        WILLUM   A.  BUCKINGHAM. 
"  To  Abraham  Lincoln, 

President  of  the  United  States." 

This  gallant  and  spirited  letter  shows  conclusively 
that  if  the  first  one  or  two  years  of  the  war  trailed 
on  in  irresolution  and  defeat,  it  was  not  for  want  of 
decided  spirit  in  Connecticut  and  her  governor. 

Still  later  in  the  war,  we  find  Governor  Buckingham 
addressing  the  following  to  President  Lincoln,  in  view 
of  his  projected  Emancipation  Policy : 

"State  of  Connecticut,  Executive  Department, 

Hartford,  Sept  26,  1862. 

"Dear  Sir: — While  my  views  of  your  Proclama- 
tions issued  on  the  22d  and  24th  instants,  may  be  of 
little  or  no  importance,  yet  you  will  permit  me  to  con- 
gratulate you  and  the  country  that  you  have  so  clearly 
presented  the  policy  which  you  will  hereafter  pursue 
in  suppressing  the  rebellion,  and  to  assure  you  that  it 
meets  my  cordial  approval,  and  shall  have  my  uncon- 
ditional support. 

"Not  that  I  think  your  declaration  of  freedom  will 
of  itself  bring  liberty  to  the  slave,  or  restore  peace  to 
the  nation ;  but  I  rejoice  that  your  administration  will 
not  be  prevented  by  the  clamors  of  men  in  sympathy 
with  rebels,  from  using  such  measures  as  you  indicate 
to  overpower  the  rebellion,  even  if  it  interferes  with 
and  overthrows  their  much  loved  system  of  slavery. 


478  WILLIAM   A.    BUCKINGH.Ur. 

"Have  we  not  too  long  deluded  ourselves  witli  tlie 
idea  that  mild  and  conciliatory  measures  would  influ- 
ence them  to  return  to  their  allegiance  ?  They  have 
appealed  to  the  ai'bitrament  of  the  sword ;  why  should 
we  hesitate  to  use  the  sword,  and  press  the  cause  to  a 
decision  ?  Have  we  not  undervalued  their  resources, 
disbelieved  in  their  deep  hatred  of  our  government 
and  its  free  institutions ;  and,  influenced  by  erroneous 
ideas  of  the  principles  of  humanity  and  mercy,  crimi- 
nally sent  our  brave  sons  down  to  the  grave  by  thou- 
sands, without  having  given  them  the  coveted  honor 
of  falling  on  the  battle-field,  or  without  having  chang- 
ed in  the  least  the  purpose  of  our  enemies. 

"This  little  State  has  already  sent  into  the  army, 
and  has  now  at  the  rendezvous  more  than  one-half  of 
her  able-bodied  men  between  the  a^es  of  eisrhteen 
and  forty-five  years,  and  has  more  to  ofier,  if  wanted, 
to  contend  in  battle  against  the  enemies  of  our  gov- 
ernment. 

"I  trust  we  shall  press  with  increased  energy  and 
power  every  war  measure,  as  the  most  economical, 
humane  and  Christian  policy  which  can  be  adopted  to 
save  our  national  union,  as  well  as  to  secure  perma- 
nent peace  to  those  who  shall  succeed  us. 

"With  sympathy  for  you  in  your  responsible  posi- 
tion, and  renewed  assurance  of  my  cordial  support, 
believe  me,  with  high  regard, 

your  obedient  servant, 

WILLIAM  A.  BUCKIXGHAM. 
"To  President  Lincoln, 
Washington,  D.  C. 


WILLIAM   A.    BUCKIXGHAM.  479 

After  eight  years  of  public  service,  five  of  which 
were  made  arduous  by  this  war,  into  which,  as  may 
be  seen  by  these  letters,  Governor  Buckingham  threw 
his  whole  heart  and  soul,  and  in  which  he  bore  equally 
with  our  good  President,  the  burdens  of  the  country, 
he  retired  at  last  to  that  more  private  sphere  w^hich 
he  fills  with  so  many  forms  of  honorable  usefulness. 

We  have  but  one  anecdote  in  closing,  a  noble  trib- 
bute  to  the  Governor's  blameless  example  in  his  high 
station. 

The  Connecticut  Election  Day,  as  it  is  called,  or  the 
day  when  the  Legislature  assembles,  and  the  Governor 
is  inaugurated,  has  always  been  held  in  the  State  as  a 
grand  gala  day.  During  the  war,  especially,  the  mili- 
tary pomp  and  parade  was  often  very  imposing.  The 
Governor's  military  staff  consists  of  eight  or  ten  mem- 
bers, and  while  the  war  lasted  hard  work  and  respon- 
sible duties  fell  to  their  lot.  A  friend  of  the  Governor 
who  had  usually  been*  with  him  on  these  occasions, 
remarked  to  one  of  his  staff  at  the  last  of  them : 

'^I  have  often  been  with  you  on  these  occasions, 
and  have  never  seen  any  liquor  drank.  I  suppose," 
he  added  pleasantly,  "you  do  that  privately." 

"No,  sir;"  was  the  reply.  "None  of  the  Govern- 
or's staff  ever  use  liquor." 

"Is  that  so?"  was  the  surprised  reply. 

"Yes,"  was  the  answer — "it  is  so." 

Such  an  example  as  this,  in  so  high  a  place,  had  a 
value  that  could  not  be  too  highly  estimated. 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

WENDELL     PHILLIPS 

Birth  and  Ancestry  of  Wendell  Phillips — His  Education  and  Social  Advantacre 
— The  Lovejoy  Murder — Speech  in  Faneuil  Hall — The  Murder  Justified — Mr. 
Phillips'  First  Speech — He  Defends  the  Liberty  of  the  Press— His  Ideality — 
He  Joins  the  Garrisonian  Abolitionists' — Gives  up  the  Law  and  Becomes  a  Re- 
former— His  Method  and  Style  of  Oratory — Abohtionists'  Blamed  for  the  Bos- 
ton Mob — Heroism  of  the  Early  Abohtionists' — His  Position  in  Favor  of  "Wom- 
an's Rights" — Anecdote  of  His  Lectming— His  Services  in  the  Cause  of 
Temperance — Extract  with  His  Argument  on  Prohibition — His  Severity  to- 
wards Human  Nature — His  Course  Dming  and  Since  the  War — AChange  of 
Tone  Recommended. 

Wendell  Phillips  was  born  in  Boston,  Mass.,  Nov. 
29,  1811. 

He  is  son  of  John  Phillips,  first  Mayor  of  Boston. 
The  Phillips  family  justly  rank  among  the  untitled  ar- 
istocracy of  Massachusetts.  Liberal  views,  noble  man- 
ners, love  of  learning  and  benevolent  liberality  have 
become  in  that  state  associated  with  the  name. 

John  Phillips,  the  grand  uncle  of  Wendell  Phillips, 
was  the  founder  of  Exeter  Academy,  in  New  Hamp- 
shire. Besides  this  he  endowed  a  professorship  in 
Dartmouth  College,  and  contributed  liberally  to  Prince- 
ton College,  and  gave  $31,000  to  Phillips  Academy  in 
Andover. 

His  nephew  Samuel  Phillips,  planned,  founded  and 
organized  Phillips  Academy  in  Andover.  He  was  a 
member  of  the  provincial  Congress  during  the  Revo- 
lutionary war — ^a  member  of  the  convention  to  form 

483 


484  WENDELL   PHILLIPS. 

the  United  States  Constitution  in  1779,  and  a  State 
Senator  for  twenty  years  following  the  adoption  of 
the  constitution,  and  for  fifteen  years  was  president  in 
the  Senate,  and  was  from  first  to  last  the  particular  and 
trusted  friend  of  Gen.  Washington.  If  there  be  such 
a  thing  in  America  as  a  just  and  proper  aristocracy  it 
inheres  in  families  in  whom  public  virtues  and  services 
have  been  as  eminent  as  in  this  case. 

Wendell  PhilHps  was  a  graduate  of  Harvard  Col- 
lege in  1831,  and  at  the  Cambridge  law  school  in  1833, 
and  was  admitted  to  the  Suffolk  bar  in  1834. 

A  precise  and  elegant  scholar,  gifted  with  all  possi- 
ble advantages  of  family,  position,  and  prestige, 
Wendell  Phillips  began  life  with  every  advantage. 
But  the  very  year  after  his  admission  to  the  bar,  he 
was  a  witness  of  the  mob  in  which  Garrison  was 
dragged  disgracefully  through  Boston,  for  the  crime 
of  speaking  his  conscientious  opinions. 

The  spirit  of  his  Puritan  fathers  was  strong  within 
him — and  he  was  acting  in  accordance  with  all  his 
family  traditions  when  he  at  once  espoused  the  cause 
of  Liberty. 

His  earliest  public  speech  was  made  on  an  occasion 
befitting  a  son  of  old  Massachusetts. 

On  November  7,  1837,  the  Rev.  E.  P.  Lovejoy,  was 
shot  by  a  mob  at  Alton,  Illinois,  while  attempting  to 
defend  his  printing  press  from  destruction.  When 
news  of  this  event  was  received  in  Boston,  Dr.  Chan- 
ning  headed  a  petition  to  the  Mayor  and  Aldermen 
asking  the  use  of  Faneuil  Hall  for  a  public  meeting. 
It  will  scarcely  be  credited  by  the  present  generation 
that  a  request  so  reasonable  and  so  natural,  headed  by 


LOVE  JOY   MEETING   IN    FANEUIL   HALL.  485 

a  name  so  commanding  as  that  of  Dr.  Channing,  should 
have  been  flatly  refused.  The  Mayor  and  Aldermen 
of  Boston  in  those  days  trembled  before  the  rod  of 
southern  masters,  and  however  well  disposed  towards 
their  own  distinguished  citizens,  dared  not  encour- 
age them  in  the  expression  of  any  sentiments  which 
might  possibly  be  disagreeable  to  the  South.  It 
is  true  that  this  was  the  third  printing  press  which 
Lovejoy  had  attempted  to  defend.  It  is  true  that  he 
had  a  perfect  legal  right  in  his  own  state  of  Illinois  to 
print  whatever  he  chose.  It  is  true  also  that  the  riot- 
ers who  came  from  Missouri  and  attacked  his  house 
and  shot  him,  were  the  vilest  and  profanest  scum  of 
society  which  a  slave  state  can  breed ;  but  for  all  that,  the 
State  of  Massachusetts  at  that  time  could  scarcely  find 
a  place  or  a  voice  to  express  indigcfation  at  the  out- 
rage. Dr.  Channing,  undismayed  by  the  first  rebuff, 
addressed  an  impressive  letter  to  his  fellow  citizens 
which  resulted  in  a  meeting  of  influential  gentlemen 
at  the  old  court  room.  Here  measures  were  taken  to 
secure  a  much  larger  number  of  names  to  the  petition. 
This  time  the  Mayor  and  Aldermen  consented. 

The  meeting  was  held  on  the  8th  of  December,  and 
organized  with  the  Hon.  Jonathan  Phillips  for  chair- 
man. Dr.  Channing  opened  the  meeting  with  an  elo- 
quent address,  and  resolutions  drawn  up  by  him  were 
read  and  offered. 

The  attorney  general  of  Massachusetts  appeared  now 

as  the  advocate  of  the  rioters.     He  compared  the  slaves 

to  a  menagerie  of  wild  beasts,  and  the  Alton  rioters 

to  the  orderly  mob  who  threw  the  tea  overboard  in 

1773 — talked  of  the  "conflict  of  laws"  between  Mis- 
'     30 


486  WENDELL   PHILLIPS. 

souri  and  Illinois,  declared  that  Lovejoy  was  presump- 
tuous and  imprudent  and  died  as  the  fool  dieth.  Then 
with  direct  and  insulting  reference  to  Dr.  Channing, 
he  asserted  that  a  clergyman  with  a  gun  in  his  hand,  or 
one  mingling  in  the  debates  of  a  popular  assembly, 
were  equally  out  of  place.  This  speech  produced,  as 
was  natural,  a  sensation  in  Faneuil  Hall,  and  Wendell 
Phillips  who  had  come  without  expecting  to  speak,  rose 
immediately  to  his  feet  and  amid  the  boisterous  efforts 
of  the  mobocratic  party  in  the  house  to  drown  his  voice 
made  his  first  public  speech. 

Mr.  Phillip's  style  of  oratory  is  peculiarly  solemn  and 
impressive.  The  spirit  of  whole  generations  of  Pu- 
ritan ministers  seems  to  give  might  to  it.  There  is  no 
attempt  to  propitiate  prejudice — none  to  throw  out 
popular  allurements — it  is  calm,  intense,  and  command- 
ing. 

"Sir,"  he  said,  in  the  course  of  this  speech,  "when  I 
heard  the  gentleman  lay  down  principles  which  place 
the  murderers  of  Alton  side  by  side  with  Otis  and 
Hancock,  with  Quincy  and  Adams,  I  thought  those 
precious  lips,  (pointing  to  the  portraits  in  the  hall) 
would  have  broken  into  voices  to  rebuke  the  recreant 
American ;  the  slanderer  of  the  dead.  *  *  * 
Sir,  for  the  sentiments  that  he  has  uttered,  on  soil  con- 
secrated by  the  prayers  of  the  Puritans  and  the  blood 
of  patriots,  the  earth  should  have  yawned  and  swal- 
lowed him  up." 

A  storm  of  mingled  applause  and  hisses  interrupted 
the  bold  young  orator — with  cries  of  "take  that  back — 
take  that  back."  The  uproar  became  so  great  for  a 
time  that  he  could  not  be  heard.     One  or  two  gentle- 


MR.    PHILLIPS'    FIRST    SPEECH.  487 

men  came  to  Mr.  Phillips'  side  wliile  the  crowd  still 
continued  to  shout.  "  Make  him  take  that  back — he 
sha'nt  go  on  till  he  takes  that  back."  Mr.  Phillips  came 
forward  to  the  edge  of  the  platform,  and  looking  on 
the  excited  multitude  with  that  calm,  firm,  severe 
bearing- down  glance  which  seems  often  to  have  such 
mesmeric  effects,  said  solemnly  : 

"  Fellow  citizens,  I  cannot  take  back  my  words. 
Surely  the  attorney  general  so  long  and  well  known 
here,  needs  not  the  aid  of  your  hisses  against  one  so 
young  as  I  am — my  voice,  never  before  heard  in  your 
walls."  After  this  the  young  orator  was  heard  to  the 
end  of  his  speech  without  interruption.  In  this  first 
speech,  which  was  wholly  unpremeditated,  he  showed 
all  that  clearness,  elegance  of  diction,  logical  compact- 
ness, and  above  all,  that  weight  of  moral  conviction 
which  characterized  all  his  subsequent  oratory. 

In  allusion  to  the  speech  of  the  attorney  general  he 
said :  "  Imprudent !  to  defend  the  liberty  of  the  press! 
Why  ?  Because  the  defence  was  unsuccessful !  Does 
success  gild  crime  into  patriotism  and  the  want  of  it 
change  heroic  self-devotion  into  imprudence?  Was 
Hampden  imprudent  when  he  drew  the  sword  and 
threw  away  the  scabbard  ?  Yet  he,  judged  by  that 
single  hour,  was  unsuccessful.  After  a  short  exile  the 
race  he  hated  sat  again  upon  the  throne. 

"  Imagine  yourselves  present  when  the  first  news  of 
Bunker  Hill  battle  reached  a  New  England  town.  The 
tale  would  have  run  thus :  '  The  patriots  are  routed — 
the  red  coats  victorious — Warren  lies  dead  upon  the 
field.'  With  what  scorn  would  that  Tory  have  been  re- 
ceived who  should  have  charged  Warren  with  impru- 


488  WENDELL   PHILLIPS. 

dence,  wlio  should  have  said  that  'bred  a  physician,  he 
was  out  of  place,  and  died  as  the  fool  dieth.'  How 
would  the  intimation  have  been  received  that  Warren 
and  his  successors  should  have  waited  a  better  time  ?' 
^'■Presumptuous  !  to  assert  the  freedom  of  the  press 
on  American  ground !  Is  the  assertion  of  such  free- 
dom before  the  age  ?  So  much  before  the  age  as  to 
leave  no  one  a  right  to  make  it  because  it  displeases 
the  community  ?  Who  invented  this  libel  on  his  coun- 
try ?  It  is  this  very  thing  which  entitled  Lovejoy  to 
greater  praise.  The  disputed  right  which  provoked 
the  revolution  was  far  beneath  that  for  which  he  died. 
(Here  was  a  strong  and  general  expression  of  disap- 
probation.) One  word,  gentlemen.  As  much  as 
thought  is  better  than  money,  so  much  is  the  cause 
in  which  Lovejoy  died  nobler  than  a  mere  question  of 
taxes.  James  Otis  thundered  in  this  hall  when  the 
King  did  but  touch  his  pocket  Imagine  if  you  can, 
his  indignant  eloquence  if  England  had  offered  to  put 
a  gag  on  his  lips.  ]\Ii\  Chaii'man,  from  the  bottom 
of  my  heart  I  thank  that  brave  little  band  at  Alton 
for  resisting.  We  must  remember  that  Lovejoy  had 
fled  fr'om  city  to  city — suffering  the  destruction  of 
three  printing  presses  patiently.  At  length  he  took 
counsel  with  friends,  men  of  character,  of  tried  in- 
tegrity, of  wide  views  of  Christian  principle.  They 
thought  the  crisis  had  come — that-  it  was  full  time 
to  assert  the  laws.  They  saw  around  them,  not  a 
community  like  our  own,  of  fixed  habits  and  char- 
acter, but  one  in  the  gristle,  not  yet  hardened  in 
the  bone  of  manhood.  The  people  there,  children 
of  our  older  States,  seem  to  have  forgotten  the  blood- 


MR.  Phillips'  ideality.  489 

tried  principles  of  their  fathers,  tlae  moment  they 
lost  sight  of  New  England  hills.  Something  was 
to  be  done  to  show  them  the  priceless  value  of  free- 
dom of  the  press,  to  bring  back  and  set  right  their 
wandering  and  confused  ideas.  He  and  his  advisers 
looked  on  a  community,  struggling  like  a  drunken 
man,  indifferent  to  their  rights  and  confused  in  their 
feelings.  Deaf  to  argument,  haply  they  might  be 
stunned  into  sobriety.  They  saw  that  of  which  we 
cannot  judge,  the  necessity  of  resistance.  Insulted  law 
called  for  it.  Public  opinion,  fast  hastening  on  the 
downward  course,  must  be  arrested.  Does  not  the 
event  show  they  judged  rightly?  Absorbed  in  a 
thousand  trifles,  how  will  the  nation  all  at  once  come 
to  a  stand?  Men  begin  as  in  1776  and  1640  to  dis- 
cuss principles  and  weigh  characters,  to  find  out  where 
they  are.  Haply  we  may  awake  before  we  are  borne 
over  the  precipice." 

From  this  time  Wendell  Phillips  was  identified  with 
the  radical  abolitionists. 

His  nature  is  characterized  by  an  extreme  ideal- 
ity. He  is  essentially  in  all  things  a  purist.  Had  he 
not  thus  early  in  life  been  absorbed  by  the  exigencies 
of  a  moral  conflict,  Mr.  Phillips  would  have  shown 
himself  one  of  the  most  thorough  and  carefully  culti- 
vated men  of  literature  in  our  country.  The  demand 
for  perfection  is  one  of  the  most  rigorous  in  his  na- 
ture, and  would  have  shown  itself  in  an  exacting  pre- 
cision in  style,  orthography,  rhetoric  and  pronuncia- 
tion. In  regard  to  all  these  things  his  standard  is  that 
of  an  idealist.  But  the  moral  nature  derived  from  his 
Puritan  ancestry,  was  stronger  than  every  other  por- 


490  WENDELL   PHILLIPS. 

tion  of  him,  and  his  ideality  became  concentrated 
upon  the  existing  conflict  in  American  society.  His 
nature  led  him  at  once  to  take  the  most  strenuous 
and  rigorous  ground  side  by  side  with  William  Lloyd 
Garrison. 

Tried  by  his  severe  standard,  the  constitution  of  the 
United  States,  by  an  incidental  complicity  with  slav- 
ery, had  become  a  sinful  compact :  a  covenant  with 
death  and  an  agreement  with  hell — and  with  the  un- 
questioning consistency  which  belonged  to  his  Puritan 
blood,  he  did  not  hesitate  to  sacrifice  to  this  belief  his 
whole  professional  future. 

He  abandoned  his  legal  practice  and  took  leave  of 
the  Suffolk  bar,  because  he  could  not  conscientiously 
take  the  oath  to  support  the  Constitution  of  the  Uni- 
ted States.  What  things  were  gain  to  him  he  counted 
loss. 

Henceforth  there  was  no  career  open  to  him  but 
that  of  the  agitator  and  popular  reformer.  He 
brought  to  the  despised  and  unfashionable  cause  not 
only  the  prestige  of  one  of  the  most  honored  Massa- 
chusetts names,  and  the  traditions  of  a  family  which  was 
among  orthodox  circles  as  a  Hebrew  of  the  Hebrews, 
but  the  power  of  decidedly  the  first  forensic  orator 
that  America  has  ever  produced.  His  style  was  so 
dazzling,  so  brilliant,  his  oratory  so  captivating,  that 
even  the  unpopularity  of  his  sentiments  could  not  pre- 
vent the  multitudes  from  flocking  to  hear  him.  He 
had  in  a  peculiar  degree  that  mesmeric  power  of  con- 
trol which  distinguishes  the  true  orator,  by  which  he 
holds  a  multitude  subject  to  his  will,  and  carries  them 
whither  he  pleases. 


HIS    ORATORY.  491 

His  speeches  were  generally  extempore,  and  flowed 
on  with  a  wonderful  correctness,  and  perfect  finish 
of  language,  without  faltering,  without  the  shadow 
of  an  inelegance — his  sentences  succeeding  one  anoth- 
er with  a  poised  and  rhythmical  fullness,  and  his  illus- 
trations happily  running  through  the  field  of  ancient 
and  modern  history,  and  with  the  greatest  apparent 
ease  selecting  whatever  he  needed  from  thence  for  the 
illustration  of  his  subject.  In  invective  no  American 
or  English  orator  has  ever  surpassed  him.  At  the  bar  of 
his  fervid  oratory  he  would  arraign,  try  and  condemn 
with  a  solemn  and  dignified  earnestness  that  might  al- 
most have  persuaded  the  object  of  his  attack  of  his 
own  guilt.  Warren  Hastings  is  said  to  have  judged 
himself  to  be  the  basest  of  men  while  he  listened  to 
the  denunciations  of  Burke,  and  something  of  the 
same  experience  may  have  befallen  those  who  were 
arraigned  by  Phillips. 

There  was  need  enough  at  this  time  for  a  man  thus 
endowed  to  come  to  the  help  of  liberty  in  America, 
for  the  creeping  influence  of  the  despotic  South,  lull- 
ing, caressing,  patronizing,  promising,  threatening  and 
commanding,  had  gone  very  nigh  to  take  away  the 
right  of  free  inquiry  and  free  speech  through  the 
whole  Northern  States. 

The  few  noble  women,  who  form.ed  the  ori2:inal 
Boston  Anti-Slaveiy  Society,  were  a  mark  everywhere 
spoken  against.  Even  after  the  stormy  and  scurrilous 
attack  of  the  mob  which  drove  them  out  from  their 
meeting,  and  which  almost  took  the  life  of  Garrison, 
there  was  not  a  newspaper  in  Boston,  except  the  Libera- 
tor, which  did  not,  in  giving  an  account  of  the  matter, 


492  WENDELL    PHILLIPS. 

blame  the  abolitionists  instead  of  the  rioters.  It  was 
the  old  story  that  the  lamb  had  troubled  the  wolf,  and 
ought  to  be  eaten  up  forthwith.  The  Advertiser  spoke 
of  the  affair,  "not  so  much  as  a  riot,  as  the  prevention 
of  a  riot,"  and  "considered  the  whole  matter  as  the 
triumph  of  law  over  lawless  violence,  and  the  love  of 
order  over  riot  and  confusion."  The  Christian  Regis- 
ter recommended  to  the  ladies  to  imitate  the  early 
Christians  of  Trajan's  day,  and  meet  in  secret,  adding, 
with  a  sneer,  "if  the  vanity  of  the  ladies  would  allow." 

A  leading  orthodox  divine  shortly  after  preached  a 
sermon  to  illustrate  and  defend  the  doctrine  that  no 
man  has  a  right  to  promulgate  any  opinion  distasteful 
to  the  majority  of  society  where  he  lives.  All,  in 
short,  seemed  to  be  going  one  way — newspapers,  pul- 
pits, bar  and  bench,  and  the  gay  world  of  fashion, 
were  alike  agreed  that  if  discussing  the  condition  and 
rights  and  wrongs  of  the  slave,  was  disagreeable  to 
southern  people  it  ought  to  be  put  a  stop  to  at  once 
and  everywhere,  and  that  the  Abolitionists  were  a 
pestilent  sect,  who  turned  the  world  upside  down. 

In  Wendell  Phillips,  at  last,  the  scornful  world  met 
its  match,  for  he  was  fully  capable  of  meeting  scorn 
with  superior  scorn,  and  retorting  on  contempt  with 
contempt,  and  he  stood  as  high  above  the  fear  of  man 
that  bringeth  a  snare,  as  any  of  the  most  unworldly 
of  his  Puritan  grandfathers. 

The  little  band  of  Abolitionists  that  gathered  around 
him  and  Garrison,  men  and  women,  were  every  one 
of  them  heroes.  They  were  of  the  old  revolutionary 
stock  of  Boston,  and  every  way  worthy  of  their  lin- 
eage, and  there  was  need  enough  it  should  be  so,  for 


THE    EARLY   ABOLITIONISTS.  493 

the  struggle  was  no  inconsiderable  one — it  was  for  life 
and  death.  Cast  out  of  society,  looked  on  as  the  off- 
scouring  of  the  earth,  hemmed  in  everywhere  with 
slanders,  often  alienated  from  friends  once  the  dearest 
and  most  admiring,  laboring  almost  alone  with  an  in- 
cessant and  exhausting  zeal,  some  of  more  delicate 
organization  sunk  under  the  trial,  and  may  be  said  to 
have  given  their  lives  to  the  cause. 

Wendell  Phillips  speaks  of  them  feelingly  in  one  of 
hig  later  speeches,  delivered  on  the  anniversary  of  the 
Boston  Mob : 

"Many  of  those  who  met  in  this  hall  at  that  time 
are  gone.     They  died  as  Whittier  well  says — 

'  Their  brave  hearts  breaking  slow, 
But  self-forgetful  to  the  last, 
In  words  of  cheer  and  bugle  glow, 
Their  breath  upon  the  darkness  past.' 

"In  those  days,  as  we  gathered  around  their  graves, 
and  resolved  that  the  narrower  the  circle  became  the 
closer  we  would  di'aw  together,  we  envied  the  dead 
their  rest.  Men  ceased  to  slander  them  in  that  sanc- 
tuary ;  and  as  we  looked  forward  to  the  desolate  vista 
of  calamity  and  trial  before  us,  and  thought  of  the 
temptations  which  beset  us  on  either  side,  from  world- 
ly prosperity  which  a  slight  sacrifice  of  principle  might 
secure,  or  social  ease  so  close  at  hand,  by  only  a  little 
turning  aside,  we  almost  envied  the  dead  the  quiet 
sleep  to  which  we  left  them — the  harvest  reaped,  and 
the  seal  set  beyond  the  power  of  change." 

The  career  of  Phillips  in  those  days  was  often  amid 
threats  of  personal  violence.  Assassination,  the  favor- 
ite argument  of  slavery,  was  held  up  before  him,  and 


494  WENDELL    PHILLIPS. 

the  recent  death  of  Lovejoy  showed  that  the  threat 
was  not  an  empty  one.  At  home,  his  house,  in  turn 
with  that  of  other  leading  abolitionists,  was  threatened 
with  incendiary  violence,  notwithstanding  it  was  the 
shelter  of  an  invalid  wife,  whose  frail  life  often  seemed 
to  hano-  on  a  thread.  From  that  shaded  and  secluded 
invalid  chamber,  however,  came  no  weak  prayers  or 
faltering  purposes,  for  a  braver,  higher  heart  was  never 
given  to  human  being  than  the  one  that  beat  there. 
In  the  darkest  and  most  dangerous  hours,  from  that 
sick  room  came  words  of  hope  and  cheer  and  inspira- 
tion, prompt  ever  to  bid  him  go  where  the  cause  call- 
ed for  him,  and  strengthening  him  by  buoyant  fear- 
lessness and  hio-h  religious  trust.  Such  women  are  a 
true  inspiration  to  men. 

It  is  not  wonderful  that  with  such  rare  experience 
of  how  noble  a  being  woman  may  be,  and  with  such 
superior  women  for  friends  and  associates,  that  Wen- 
dell Phillips  should  have  formed  a  high  ideal  of  wo- 
manhood, and  become  early  one  of  the  most  enthusi- 
astic supporters  of  all  reforms  in  which  the  interest  of 
woman  is  concerned. 

On  the  15th  and  16th  of  October,  1857,  he  offered 
at  a  convention  held  in  Worcester  a  series  of  resolu- 
tions in  relation  to  the  political  rights  of  women  which 
cover  all  the  ground  contended  for  by  modern  reform- 
ers. His  speech  on  this  subject  is  one  of  the  most 
able  and  eloquent  on  record,  and  forms  a  part  of  the 
permanent  literature  of  the  movement. 

He  speaks  of  womanhood  with  a  solemn  and  religious 
earnestness,  with  the  fervor  of  knightly  times,  and 
pleads  against  all  customs  and  laws  which  bear  hai'dly 


ANECDOTES    OF   LECTURING.  495 

upon  her  delicate  organization,  wliicli  mislead  her  from 
following  lier  highest  aspirations. 

An  anecdote  in  cii'culation  about  him  shows  that  he 
not  only  held  such  theories,  but  that  he  was  helpful  in 
practice.  It  is  so  in  keeping  with  his  general  charac- 
ter as  to  be  extremely  probable.  Notwithstanding 
the  unpopularity  of  his  abolition  sentiments,  Mr.  Phil- 
lips' power  as  an  orator  was  such  that  when  lecturing 
on  ordinary  subjects  he  commanded  the  very  highest 
prices  in  the  literary  market.  On  one  of  his  tours  he 
met  in  the  cars  a  woman  who  was  seeking  a  self-sup- 
porting career  as  a  lecturer.  Mr.  Phillips  inquired  in- 
to her  success,  and  found  that  independent  of  her  ex- 
penses she  made  at  the  rate  only  of  five  dollars  a 
time.  He  declared  that  such  an  inequality  with  his 
own  success  was  an  injustice,  and  added  that  he  must 
beg  her  to  allow  him  to  equalize  the  account  for  once, 
by  accepting  the  proceeds  of  his  last  lecture. 

Mr.  Phillips  had  a  way  of  making  his  fame  and  rep- 
utation gain  him  a  hearing  on  the  unpopular  subject 
which  he  had  most  at  heart.  Committees  from  anx- 
ious lyceums  used  to  wait  on  him  for  his  terms,  sure 
of  being  able  to  fill  a  house  by  his  name. 

"What are  your  terms,  Mr.  Phillips?" 

"If  I  lecture  on  anti-slavery,  nothing.  If  on  any 
other  subject  one  hundred  dollars." 

The  success  of  his  celebrated  lecture  on  the  Lost  Arts, 
which  has  been  perhaps  more  than  a  thousand  times 
repeated,  is  only  a  chance  specimen  of  what  he  might 
have  done  in  this  department  of  lecturing,  could  he 
have  allowed  himself  that  use  of  his  talent. 


496  WENDELL   PHILLIPS. 

Mr.  PMllips  is  far  from  being  a  man  of  one  idea. 
Energetic  as  was  his  abolition  campaign,  lie  has  found 
time  and  strength  to  strike  some  of  the  heaviest  and 
most  victorious  blows  for  temperance.  He  has  been 
a  vigorous  defender  of  the  interests  of  the  Maine  Law, 
endangered  in  Massachusetts  by  the  continual  compli- 
ances of  rank  and  fashion.  His  letter  to  Judge  Shaw 
and  President  Walker  is  a  specimen  of  unfearing  and 
unflinching  exposure  and  rebuke  of  those  practices 
and  concessions  of  public  men,  which  cast  contempt 
on  the  execution  of  law.  His  oration  on  Metropoli- 
tan Police  has  powerful  arguments  in  favor  of  the  pol- 
icy of  legislative  prevention  of  intemperance. 

We  have  selected  his. argument  on  the  subject,  both 
as  a  good  example  of  his  style  and  manner,  and  as  a 
powerful  presentation  of  a  much  needed  argument. 

"  Some  men  look  upon  this  temperance  cause  as 
whining  bigotry,  narrow  asceticism,  or  a  vulgar  senti- 
mentality, fit  for  little  minds,  weak  women,  and  weaker 
men.  On  the  contrary,  I  regard  it  as  second  only  to 
one  or  two  others  of  the  primary  reforms  of  this  age, 
and  for  this  reason.  Every  race  has  its  peculiar  temp- 
tation ;  every  clime  has  its  specific  sin.  The  tropics 
and  tropical  races  are  tempted  to  one  form  of  sensu- 
ality ;  the  colder  and  temperate  regions,  and  our  Saxon 
blood,  find  their  peculiar  temptation  in  the  stimulus 
of  drink  and  food.  In  old  times  our  heaven  was  a 
drunken  revel.  •  We  relieve  ourselves  from  the  over- 
weariness  of  constant  and  exhaustive  toil  by  intoxica- 
tion. Science  has  brought  a  cheap  means  of  drunk- 
enness within  the  reach  of  every  individual.  National 
prosperity  and  free  institutions  have  put  into  the  hands 


PHILLIPS    ON    TEMPERANCE.  497 

of  almost  every  workman  the  means  of  being  drunk 
for  a  week  on  the  labor  of  two  or  three  hours.  With 
that  blood  and  that  temptation,  we  have  adopted  dem- 
ocratic institutions,  where  the  law  has  no  sanction  but 
the  purpose  and  virtue  of  the  masses.  The  statute- 
book  rests  not  on  bayonets,  as  in  Europe,  but  on  the 
hearts  of  the  people.  A  drunken  people  can  never  be 
the  basis  of  a  free  government.  It  is  the  corner-stone 
neither  of  virtue,  prosperity,  nor  progress.  To  us, 
therefore,  the  title-deeds  of  whose  estates  and  the  safe- 
ty of  whose  lives  depend  upon  the  tranquillity  of  the 
streets,  upon  the  virtue  of  the  masses,  the  presence  of 
any  vice  which  brutalizes  the  average  mass  of  mankind, 
and  tends  to  make  it  more  readily  the  tool  of  intrigu- 
ing and  corrupt  leaders,  is  necessarily  a  stab  at  the  very 
life  of  the  nation.  Against  such  a  vice  is  marshalled 
the  Temperance  Reformation.  That  my  sketch  is  no 
mere  fancy  picture,  every  one  of  you  knows.  Every 
one  of  you  can  glance  back  over  your  own  path,  and 
count  many  and  many  a  one  among  those  who  started 
from  the  goal  at  your  side,  with  equal  energy  and  per- 
haps greater  promise,  who  has  found  a  drunkard's  grave 
long  before  this.  The  brightness  of  the  bar,  the  orna- 
ment of  the  pulpit,  the  hope  and  blessing  and  stay  of 
many  a  family, — you  know,  every  one  of  you  who  has 
reached  middle  life,  how  often  on  your  path  you  set 
up  the  warning,  "  Fallen  before  the  temptations  of  the 
streets !  "  Hardly  one  house  in  this  city,  whether  it 
be  full  and  warm  with  all  the  luxurv  of  wealth,*  or 
whether  it  find  hard,  cold  maintenance  by  the  most 
earnest  economy,  no  matter  which, — hardly  a  house 
that  does  not  count,  among  sons  or  nephews,   some 


498  WENDELL   PHILLIPS. 

victim  of  this  vice.  Tlie  skeleton  of  this  warning  sits 
at  every  board.  The  whole  world  is  kindred  in  this 
suffering.  The  country  mother  launches  her  boy  with 
trembling  upon  the  temptations  of  city  life ;  the  father 
trusts  his  daughter  anxiously  to  the  young  man  she 
has  chosen,  knowing  what  a  wreck  intoxication  may 
make  of  the  house-tree  they  set  up.  Alas !  how  often 
are  their  worst  forebodings  more  than  fulfilled!  I 
have  known  a  case — and  probably  many  of  you  can 
recall  some  almost  equal  to  it — where  one  worthy 
woman  could  count  father,  brother,  husband,  and  son- 
in-law,  all  di'unkards, — no  man  among  her  near  kin- 
dred, except  her  son,  who  was  not  a  victim  of  this  vice. 
Like  all  other  appetites,  this  finds  resolution  weak 
when  set  against  the  constant  presence  of  temptation. 
This  is  the  evil.  How  are  the  laws  relating  to  it  exe- 
cuted in  this  city  ?     Let  me  tell  you. 

"First,  there  has  been  great  discussion  of  this  evil, — 
wide,  earnest,  patient  discussion,  for  thirty-five  years. 
The  whole  community  has  been  stirred  by  the  discus- . 
sion  of  this  question.  Finally,  after  various  experi- 
ments, the  majority  of  the  State  decided  that  the  meth- 
od to  stay  this  evil  was  to  stop  the  open  sale  of  intox- 
icating drink.  They  left  moral  suasion  still  to  address 
the  individual,  and  set  themselves  as  a  community  to 
close  the  doors  of  temptation.  Every  man  acquainted 
with  his  own  nature  or  with  society  knows  that,  weak 
virtue,  walking  through  our  streets,  and  meeting  at 
every  tenth  door  (for  that  is  the  average)  the  tempta- 
tion to  drink,  must  fall ;  that  one  must  be  a  moral 
Hercules  to  stand  erect.  To  prevent  the  open  sale  of 
intoxicating  liquor  has  been  the  method  selected  by 


PHILLIPS   DURING   AND    SINCE    THE    WAR.  499 

the  State  to  help  its  citizens  to  be  virtuous  ;  in  other 
words,  the  State  has  enacted  what  is  called  the  Maine 
Liquor  Law,  — the  plan  of  refusing  all  licenses  to  sell, 
to  be  drunk  on  the  spot  or  elsewhere,  and  allowing 
only  an  official  agent  to  sell  for  medicinal  purposes  and 
the  arts.  You  may  drink  in  your  own  parlors,  you 
may  make  what  indulgence  you  please  your  daily  rule, 
the  State  does  not  touch  you  there;  there  you  injure 
only  yourself,  and  those  you  directly  influence  ;  that 
the  State  cannot  reach.  But  when  you  open  your 
door  and  say  to  your  fellow-citizens,  '  Come  and  in- 
dulge,' the  State  has  a  right  to  ask,  'In  what  do  you 
invite  them  to  indulge  ?  Is  it  in  something  that  helps, 
or  something  that  harms,  the  community  ? ' " 

■5C-  -Jf  *  •»  *  *  rj  -Jf  t:-  « 

In  our  recent  war  it  is  scarcely  needful  to  say  that 
Mr.  Phillips  has  always  been  a  counsellor  for  the  most 
thorough,  the  most  intrepid  and  most  efficient  meas- 
ures. 

During  the  period  of  comparative  vacillation  and 
uncertainty,  when  McClellan  was  the  commander-in- 
chief,  and  war  was  being  made  on  political  principles, 
Mr.  Phillips  did  his  utmost  in  speeches  and  public  ad- 
dresses in  the  papers,  to  stir  up  the  people  to  demand 
a  more  efficient  policy. 

Since  the  termination  of  the  war  and  the  emanci- 
pation of  the  slave,  Mr.  Phillips  seems  to  show  that 
the  class  of  gifts  and  faculties  adapted  to  rouse  a  stu- 
pid community,  and  to  force  attention  to  neglected 
truths  are  not  those  most  adapted  to  the  delicate 
work  of  reconstruction.  The  ffood  knis-ht  who  can  cut 
and  hew  in  battle,   cannot  always  do   the  surgeon's 


500  WENDELL   PHILLIPS. 

work  of  healing  and  restoring.  That  exacting  ide- 
ality which  is  the  leading  faculty  of  Mr.  Phillips'  na- 
ture leads  him  constantly  to  undervalue  what  has  been 
attained,  and  it  is  to  be  regretted  that  it  deprived  him 
of  the  glow  and  triumph  of  a  victory  in  which  no  man 
than  he  better  deserved  to  rejoice. 

Garrison  hung  up  his  shield  and  sword  at  a  definite 
point,  and  marked  the  era  of  victory  with  devout  thank- 
fulness ;  and  we  can  but  regret,  that  the  more  exact- 
ing mind  of  Phillips  was  too  much  fixed  on  what  yet 
was  wanting  to  share  the  well  earned  joy. 

When  there  is  strong  light  there  must  be  shadow, 
and  the  only  shadow  we  discern  in  the  public  virtues 
of  Mr.  Phillips  is  the  want  of  a  certain  power  to  ap- 
preciate and  make  allowances  for  the  necessary  weak- 
nesses and  imperfections  of  human  nature. 

He  has  been  a  teacher  of  the  school  of  the  law  rath- 
er than  that  of  the  Gospel ;  he  has  been  most  espec- 
ially useful  because  we  have  been  in  a  state  where  such 
stern  unflinching  teachings  have  been  indispensable. 

Mr.  Phillips'  methods  indeed,  of  dealing  with  human 
nature,  savor  wholly  of  the  law  and  remind  us  forcibly 
of  the  pithy  and  vigorous  account  which  John  Bun- 
yan  puts  into  the  mouth  of  his  pilgrim. 

"  I  saw  one  coming  after  me  swift  as  the  wind, 
and  so  soon  as  the  man  overtook  me,  it  was  but  a 
word  and  a  blow,  for  down  he  knocked  me  and  laid 
me  for  dead.  But  when  I  was  a  little  come  to  myself 
I  asked  him  wherefore  he  served  me  so.  He  said  be- 
cause of  my  secret  inclining  to  Adam  the  first,  and 
with  that  he  struck  me  another  deadly  blow  on  the 
breast,  and  beat  me  down  backward,  and  so  I  lay  at 


CHANGE  OF  TONE  RECOMMENDED.        501 

his  foot  as  dead  as  before.  So  when  I  came  to  my- 
self, I  cried  him  mercy  ;  but  he  said,  I  know  not  how 
to  show  mercy,  and  with  that  he  knocked  me  down 
ao-ain.  He  had  doubtless  made  an  end  of  me  but  that 
one  came  by  and  bid  him  forbear. 

Who  was  he  that  bid  him  forbear  ?  I  did  not  know 
him  at  first  but  as  he  went  by,  I  perceived  the  holes 
in  his  hands  and  his  side." 

There  is  a  time  for  all  things,  and  this  stern  work  of 
the  land  had  to  be  done  in  our  country.  Almighty 
God  seconded  it  by  awful  providences,  and  pleaded 
against  the  oppressor  in  the  voice  of  famine  and  bat- 
tle, of  fire  and  sword. 

The  guilty  land  had  been  riven  and  torn,  and  in  the 
language  of  scripture,  made  an  astonishment  and  a 
desolation ! 

May  we  not  think  now  that  the  task  of  binding  up 
the  wounds  of  a  bruised  and  shattered  country,  of  re- 
conciling jarring  interests  thrown  into  new  and  deli- 
cate relationships,  of  bringing  peace  to  sore  and  wea- 
ried nerves,  and  abiding  quiet  to  those  who  are  fated 
to  dwell  side  by  side  in  close  proximity,  may  require 
faculties  of  a  wider  and  more  varied  adaptation,  and 
a  spirit  breathing  more  of  Calvary  and  less  of  Sinai  ? 

It  is  no  discredit  to  the  good  sword  gapped  with  the 
blows  of  a  hundred  battle  fields,  to  hang  it  up  in  all 
honor,  as  having  done  its  work. 

It  has  made  place  for  a  thousand  other  forces  and 
influences  each  powerless  without  it,  but  each  now 
more  powerful  and  more  efficient  in  their  own  field. 

Those  who  are  so  happy  as  to  know  Mr.  Phillips 
personally,  are  fully  aware  how  entirely  this  unflinch- 
31 


502  WENDELL   PHILLIPS. 

ing  austerity  of  judgment,  this  vigorous  severity  of  ex- 
action, belong  to  his  public  character  alone,  how  full 
of  genial  urbanity  they  find  the  private  individual. 
"We  may  be  pardoned  for  expressing  the  hope  that  the 
time  may  yet  come  when  he  shall  see  his  way  clear  to 
take  counsel  in  public  matters  with  his  own  kindly  impul- 
ses, and  that  those  genial  traits  which  render  his  private 
intercourse  so  agreeable,  may  be  allowed  to  modify  at 
least  his  public  declarations. 


^&.^  ^^hSe^a^/U^ 


CHAPTER    XVIII. 

HENRY    WARD    BEECHER. 

Mr.  Beecher  a  Younger  Child  —  Death  of  his  Mother  —  His  Step-Mother's 
Religious  Influence — Ma'am  Kilbourn's  School — The  Passing  Bell — Unprofit- 
able Schooling — An  Inveterate  School  Joker — Masters  the  Latin  Grammar 
— Goes  to  Amherst  College — His  Love  of  Flowers — Modes  of  Study;  a 
Eeformer — Mr.  Beecher  and  the  Solemn  Tutor — His  Favorite  Poetrj' — His 
Introduction  to  Phrenology — His  Mental  Philosophy — Doctrine  of  Spuitual 
Intuition — Punctuality  for  Joke's  Sake — Old  School  and  New  School — Doubts 
on  Entering  the  Ministry — Settlement  at  LawTcnceburg — His  Stndics  ;  First 
Re\ival — Large  Accessions  to  tlie  Church — "Tropical  Style" — Ministerial 
Jokes — Slavery  in  the  Pulpit — The  Transfer  to  Brooklyn — Plymouth  Church 
Preaching — Visit  to  England — Speeches  in  England — Letters  from  England — 
Christian  View  of  England — The  Exeter  Hall  Speech — Preaches  an  Unpop- 
ular Forgiveness. 

Henry  Ward  Beecher  was  the  eighth  child  of  Ly- 
man and  Roxana  Foote  Beecher,  born  in  Litchfield, 
Connecticut,  June  24,  1813.  The  first  child  of  a  fam- 
ily is  generally  an  object  of  high  hope  and  anxious  and 
careful  attention.  They  are  observed,  watched — and 
if  the  parents  are  so  disposed,  carefully  educated,  and 
often  over-watched  and  over-educated.  But  in  large 
families,  as  time  rolls  on  and  children  multiply,  espec- 
ially to  those  in  straitened  worldly  circumstances,  all 
the  interest  of  novelty  dies  out  before  the  advent  of 
younger  children,  and  they  are  apt  to  find  their  way 
in  early  life  unwatched  and  unheralded.  Dr.  Beech- 
er's  salary  was  eight  hundred  dollars  a  year,  not  al- 
ways promptly  paid.     This  made  the  problem  of  feed- 

605 


506  HEXRY    WARD    BEECHER. 

ing,  clothing  and  educating  a  family  of  ten  children  a 
dark  one.  The  family  was  constantly  enlarged  by 
boarders,  young  ladies  attending  the  female  academy, 
and  whose  board  helped  somewhat  to  the  support  of 
the  domestic  establishment,  but  added  greatly  to  the 
cares  of  the  head  manager.  The  younger  members 
of  the  Beecher  family  therefore  came  into  existence 
in  a  great  bustling  household  of  older  people,  all  go- 
ing tfieir  separate  ways,  and  having  their  own  grown- 
up interests  to  carry.  The  child,  growing  up  in  this 
busy,  active  circle,  had  constantly  impressed  upon  it 
a  sense  of  personal  insignificance  as  a  child,  and  the 
absolute  need  of  the  virtue  of  passive  obedience  and 
non-resistance  as  regards  all  grown-up  people.  To  be 
statedly  washed  and  dressed  and  catechised,  got  to 
school  at  regular  hours  in  the  morning,  and  to  bed 
inflexibly  at  the  earliest  possible  hour  at  night,  com- 
prised about  all  the  attention  that  children  could  receive 
in  those  days. 

The  mother  of  Henry  "Ward  died  when  he  was 
three  years  old ;  his  father  was  immersed  in  theologi- 
cal investigations  and  a  wide  sphere  of  pastoral  labors 
and  great  general  ecclesiastical  interests,  his  grown- 
up brothers  and  sisters  in  their  own  separate  life  his- 
tory, and  the  three  younger  children  were  therefore 
left  to  their  mortal  pilgrimage,  within  certain  well- 
defined  moral  limits,  much  after  their  own  way.  The 
step-mother,  who  took  the  station  of  mother,  was  a 
lady  of  great  personal  elegance  and  attractiveness,  of 
high  intellectual  and  moral  culture,  who  from  having 
been  in  early  life  the  much  admired  belle  in  general 
society,  came  at  last  from  an  impulse  of  moral  heroism 


HIS  step-mother's  religious  influence.       507 

combined  with  personal  attachment,  to  undertake  the 
austere  labors  of  a  poor  minister's  family.  She  was  a 
person  to  make  a  deep  impression  on  the  minds  of 
any  children.  There  was  a  moral  force  about  her,  a 
dignity  of  demeanor,  an  air  of  elegance  and  superior 
breeding,  which  produced  a  constant  atmosphere  of 
unconscious  awe  in  the  minds  of  little  ones.  Then 
her  duties  were  onerous,  her  conscience  inflexible,  and 
under  the  weight  of  these  her  stock  of  health  and 
animal  spirits  sunk,  so  that  she  was  for  the  most  part 
pensive  and  depressed.  Her  nature  and  habits  were 
too  refined  and  exacting  for  the  bringing  up  of  chil- 
dren of  great  animal  force  and  vigor,  under  the  strain 
and  pressure  of  straitened  circumstances.  The  absurd- 
ities and  crudenesses  incident  to  the  early  days  of  such 
children  appeared  to  her  as  serious  faults,  and  weigh- 
ed heavily  on  her  conscience.  The  most  intense  posi- 
tive religious  and  moral  influence  the  three  little  ones 
of  the  family  received  was  on  Sunday  night,  when  it 
was  her  custom  to  take  them  to  her  bed-room  and 
read  and  talk  and  pray  with  them.  At  these  times, 
deep  though  vague  religious  yearnings  were  created ; 
but  as  she  was  much  of  her  time  an  invalid,  and  had 
little  sympathy  with  the  ordinary  feelings  of  child- 
hood, she  gave  an  impression  of  religion  as  being  like 
herself,  calm,  solemn,  inflexible,  mysteriously  sad  and 
rigorously  exacting. 

In  those  days  none  of  the  attentions  were  paid 
to  children  that  are  now  usual.  The  community  did 
not  recognize  them.  There  was  no  child's  literature ; 
there  were  no  children's  books.  The  Sunday  school 
was  yet  an   experiment,  in  a.  fluctuating,  uncertain 


508  HENRY   TVARD   BEE  CHER. 

State  of  trial.  There  were  no  children's  days  of  pres- 
ents and  fetes— no  Christmas  or  New  Year's  festivals. 
The  annual  thanksgiving  was  only  associated  with  one 
day's  unlimited  range  of  pies  of  every  sort— too  much 
for  one  day,  and  too  soon  things  of  the  past.  The 
childhood  of  Henry  Ward  was  unmarked  by  the  pos- 
session of  a  single  child's  toy  as  a  gift  from  any  older 
person,  or  a  single  f^te.  Very  early,  too,  strict  duties 
devolved  upon  him ;  a  daily  portion  of  the  work  of 
the  establishment,  the  care  of  the  domestic  animals, 
the  cutting  and  piling  of  wood,  or  tasks  in  the  garden 
strengthened  his  muscles  and  gave  vigor  and  tone  to 
his  nerves.  From  his  father  and  mother  he  inherited 
a  perfectly  solid,  healthy  organization  of  brain,  muscle 
and  nerves,  and  the  uncaressing,  let-alone  system  un- 
der which  he  was  brought  up,  gave  him  early  habits 
of  vigor  and  self-reliance. 

Litchfield  was  a  mountain  town,  where  the  winter 
was  a  stern  reality  for  six  months  of  the  year,  where 
there  were  giant  winds,  and  drifting  snows  of  immeas- 
urable depth,  and  ice  and  sleet  storms  of  a  sublime 
power  and  magnitude.  Under  this  rugged  nursing  he 
grew  outwardly  vigorous.  At  nine  years  of  age,  in 
one  of  those  winter  drousrhts  common  in  New  Enf^land 
towns,  he  harnessed  the  horse  to  a  sledge  with  a  bar- 
rel lashed  thereon,  and  went  off  alone  three  miles 
over  the  icy  top  of  the  town  hill,  to  dip  up  and  bring 
home  a  barrel  of  water  fi^om  a  distant  spring.  So  far 
from  taking  this  as  a  hardship,  he  undertook  it  with  a 
chivalric  pride.  His  only  trial  in  the  case  was  the  hu- 
miliation of  being  positively  commanded  by  his  care- 
ful  step-mother   to  wear   his   overcoat ;  he  departed 


ma'am  kilbourxs  school.  509 

obedient,  but  witli  tears  of  mortification  freezing  on 
his  cheeks,  for  he  had  recorded  a  heroic  vow  to  go 
through  a  whole  winter  without  once  wearing  an  over- 
coat. 

For  education,  technically  so  called,  there  were  small 
advantages.     His  earliest  essay  of  letters  was  to  walk 
over  to  West  street,  to  a  widow  Kilbourn's,  where  he  sat 
daily  on  a  bench  kicking  his  heels  in  idleness,  and  said 
his  letters  twice  in  the  day,  and  was  for  so  long  out  of 
the  way  of  the  grown  folks,  which  was  a  main  point 
in  child  schoolmg.     There  was  a  tinner's  shop  hard 
by,  and  the  big  girls,  some  of  them,  contrived  to  saw 
off  some  of  his  long  golden  curls  with  tin  shears  con- 
trived from  the  fragments  cast  out  of  the  shop.     The 
child  was  annoyed,    but  dared   not  complain  to  any 
purpose,  till  the  annoyance  being  stated  at  home,  it 
was  concluded  that  the  best  way  to  abate  it  was  to  cut 
off  all  the  curls  altogether,  and  with  the  loss  of  these 
he  considered   his   manhood   to  commence.     Next,  a 
small,  unpainted,   district  school-house  being  erected 
within  a  stone's  throw  of  the  parsonage,  he  graduated 
from  Ma'am  Kilbourn's  thither.     The  children  of  all 
the  farming  population  in  the  neighborhood  gathered 
there.     The  exercises  consisted  in  daily  readings  of 
the  Bible  and  the  Columbian  Orator,  in  elementary  ex- 
ercises in  arithmetic,  and  hand-^vi'iting.      The  ferule 
and  a  long  flexible  hickory  switch  were  the  insignia 
of  office   of  the   school   mistress.     No   very   striking 
early   results   were    the    outcome   of    this   teaching. 
Henry  Ward  was  not  marked  out  by  the  prophecies 
of  partial  friends  for  any  brilliant  future.     He  had  pre- 
cisely the  organization  which  often  passes  for  dullness 


510  HENRY    WARD   BEECHER. 

in  early  boyliood.  He  had  great  deficiency  in  ver- 
bal memory,  a  deficiency  marked  in  him  through  life ; 
he  was  excessively  sensitive  to  praise  and  blame,  ex- 
tremely difiident,  and  with  a  power  of  yearning,  un- 
developed emotion,  which  he  neither  understood  nor 
could  express.  His  utterance  was  thick  and  indistinct, 
partly  from  bashfulness  and  partly  from  an  enlarge- 
ment of  the  tonsils  of  the  throat,  so  that  in  speaking 
or  reading  he  was  with  difiiculty  understood.  In  fore- 
casting his  horoscope,  had  any  one  taken  the  trouble 
then  to  do  it,  the  last  success  that  ever  would  have 
been  predicted  for  him  would  have  been  that  of  an 
orator.  "When  Henry  is  sent  to  me  with  a  message," 
said  a  good  aunt,  "I  always  have  to  make  him  say  it 
three  times.  The  first  time  I  have  no  manner  of  an 
idea  more  than  if  he  spoke  Choctaw ;  the  second,  I 
catch  now  and  then  a  word  ;  by  the  third  time  I  begin 
to  understand." 

Thus,  while  Dr.  Beecher  victoriously  demonstrated 
the  consistency  of  decrees  and  accountability,  and  the 
elder  brother  was  drawing  all  the  hopes  of  the  family 
as  the  first  in  his  college  class,  and  his  elder  sisters 
were  writing  poetry  and  receiving  visits,  and  carrying 
on  the  cheerful  round  of  Litchfield  society,  this  bash- 
ful, dazed-looking  boy  pattered  barefoot  to  and  from 
the  little  unpainted  school-house,  with  a  brown  towel 
or  a  blue  checked  apron  to  hem  during  the  intervals 
between  his  spelling  and  reading  lessons.  Nobody 
thought  much  of  his  future,  further  than  to  see  that 
he  was  safe  and  healthy,  or  even  troubled  themselves 
to  inquire  what  might  be  going  on  in  his  life. 


THE    PASSING    BELL.  511 

But  the  cliild  most  let  alone,  is  nevertheless  being 
educated  gradually  and  insensibly.  The  calm,  inflexi- 
ble, elegant  breeding  of  the  step-mother,  her  intense 
solemnity  of  religious  responsibility,  indicating  itself 
in  every  chance  look  or  motion,  fell  on  the  sensitive 
child-nature  like  a  constant  moral  stimulant.  When  a 
little  fellow,  whose  small  feet  could  not  touch  the  bot- 
tom of  the  old  family  chaise,  he  was  once  diiving  with 
her  on  an  errand.  The  bell  tolled  for  a  death,  as  was 
then  the  custom  in  rural  places.  "Henry,  what  do 
you  think  of  when  you  hear  a  bell  tolling  like  that  ?" 
she  said.  Astonished  and  awe-struck  at  having  his 
thoughts  inquired  into,  the  child  only  flushed,  and 
colored  and  looked  abashed,  and  she  went  on  as  in  a 
quiet  soliloquy,  "/think,  was  that  soul  prepared?  It 
has  gone  into  eternity ! "  The  efiect  on  the  child's 
mind  was  a  shiver  of  dread,  like  the  being  turned  out 
without  clothing  among  the  icy  winds  of  Litchfield 
hills.  The  vague  sense  of  infinite,  inevitable  doom  un- 
derlying all  the  footsteps  of  life,  added  to  a  natural 
disposition  to  yearning  and  melancholy.  The  scenery 
around  the  parsonage  fed  the  yearning — Chestnut  Hill 
on  one  side,  with  its  lovely,  softly  wooded  slopes,  and 
waving  grain-fields;  on  the  other,  Mount  Tom,  with 
steel-blue  pines  and  a  gleaming  lake  miiTor  at  its 
feet.  Then  there  was  the  piano  always  going,  and 
the  Scotch  airs,  Ptoslin  Castle,  Mary's  Dream,  and 
Bonnie  Boon,  sounding  out  from  the  parlor  windows, 
and  to  which  the  boy  listened  in  a  sort  of  troublous 
and  dreamy  mixture  of  sadness  and  joy,  and  walked 
humming  to  himself  with  tears  in  his  eyes. 


512  HENRY    WARD    BEECHER. 

The  greatest  trial  of  those  days  was  the  catechism. 
Sunday  lessons  were  considered  by  the  mother-in-law 
as  inflexible  duty,  and  the  catechism  as  the  sine  qua 
non.  The  other  children  memorized  readily  and  were 
brilliant  reciters,  but  Henry,  blushing,  stammering, 
confused  and  hopelessly  miserable,  stuck  fast  on  some 
sand-bank  of  what  is  required  or  forbidden  by  this  or 
that  commandment,  his  mouth  choking  up  with  the 
long  words  which  he  hopelessly  miscalled  ;  was  sure  to 
be  accused  of  idleness  or  inattention,  and  to  be  solemnly 
talked  to,  which  made  him  look  more  stolid  and  mise- 
rable than  ever,  but  appeared  to  have  no  effect  in 
quickening  his  dormant  faculties. 

When  he  was  ten  years  old,  he  was  a  stocky,  strong, 
well-grown  boy,  loyal  in  duty,  trained  in  unquestion- 
ing obedience,  inured  to  patient  hard  work,  inured 
also  to  the  hearing  and  discussing  of  all  the  great  the- 
ological problems  of  Calvinism,  which  were  always 
reverberating  in  his  hearing ;  but  as  to  any  mechanical 
culture,  in  an  extremely  backward  state — a  poor 
writer,  a  miserable  speller,  with  a  thick  utterance,  and 
a  bashful  reticence  which  seemed  like  stolid  stupidity. 
He  was  now  placed  at  a  private  school  in  the  neigh- 
boring town  of  Bethlehem,  under  the  care  of  the  Rev. 
Mr.  Langdon,  to  commence  a  somewhat  more  careful 
course  of  study.  Here  an  incident  occurred  which 
showed  that  the  boy  even  at  that  early  age  felt  a  mis- 
sion to  defend  opinions.  A  forward  school-boy, 
among  the  elder  scholars,  had  got  hold  of  Paine's  Age 
of  Reason,  and  was  flourishing  largely  among  the  boys 
with  objections  to  the  Bible,  drawn  therefrom.  Henry 
privately  looked  up  Watson's  Apology,  studied  up  the 


UNPROFITABLE  SCHOOLING.  513 

subject,  and  challenged  a  debate  with  the  big  boy,  in 
which  he  came  off  victorious  by  the  acclamation  of 
his  school-fellows.    • 

His  progress  in  book-learning,  however,  was  slow, 
though  his  year  at  the  place  was  one  of  great  happi- 
ness. One  trait  of  the  boy,  as  it  has  been  with  the 
man,  was  a  peculiar  passion  for  natural  scenery,  which 
he  found  full  liberty  to  indulge  in  his  present  sur- 
roundings. He  boarded  with  a  large-hearted,  kindly, 
motherly  woman,  in  a  great  comfortable  farm-house, 
where  everything  was  free  and  unconstrained.  The 
house  was  backed  by  a  generous  old  orchard,  full  of 
fruits  and  blossoms  in  spring  and  summer,  and  where 
the  partridges  drummed  and  whirred  in  winter.  Be- 
yond that  were  dreamy  depths  of  woodland,  and 
Henry's  studies  were  mostly  with  gun  on  shoulder, 
roving  the  depths  of  those  forests,  guiltless  of  hitting 
anything,  because  the  time  was  lost  in  dreamy  con- 
templation. Thence  returning  unprepared  for  school, 
he  would  be  driven  to  the  expedient  of  writing  out 
his  Latin  verb  and  surreptitiously  reading  it  out  of  the 
crown  of  his  hat,  an  exercise  from  whence  he  reaped 
small  profit,  either  mentally  or  morally.  In  short, 
after  a  year  spent  in  this  way,  it  began  to  be  perceived 
by  the  elders  of  the  family,  that  as  to  the  outward  and 
visible  signs  of  learning,  he  was  making  no  progress. 
His  eldest  sister  was  then  teaching  a  young  lady's 
school  in  Hartford,  and  it  was  proposed  to  take  the 
boy  under  her  care  to  see  what  could  be  made  of  him. 

One  boy  of  eleven  in  a  school  of  thirty  or  forty  girls 
has  not  much  chance  of  making  a  durable  impression, 
but  we  question  if  any  of  Henry's  school  mates  easily 


514  HENRY  WARD  BEE  CHER. 

forgot  him.  If  the  under  stratum  of  Ms  nature  was  a 
dreamy  yearning  melancholy,  its  upper  manifestation 
was  in  constant  bubbling,  restless  effervescence  of  fun 
and  practical  joking.  The  school  room  was  up  a  long 
flight  of  stairs,  and  one  wet  day  Henry  spent  a  recess 
when  he  was  supposed  to  be  studying  grammar,  in 
opening  every  umbrella  brought  to  school,  and  so  dis- 
posing them  on  the  stairs  that  the  luckless  person  who 
opened  the  outside  door  would  witness  a  precipitate 
rush  of  the  whole  series  into  the  street — which  feat 
was  successfully  accomplished  to  the  dismay  of  the 
late  comer,  and  the  tittering  of  the  whole  school,  who 
had  been  somewhat  prepared  for  the  catastrophe. 

The  school  room  was  divided  into  two  divisions  in 
grammar,  under  leaders  on  either  side,  and  the  gram- 
matical reviews  were  contests  for  superiority  in  which 
it  was  vitally  important  that  every  member  should  be 
perfected.  Henry  was  generally  the  latest  choice,  and 
fell  on  his  side  as  an  unlucky  accession — being  held 
more  amusing  than  profitable  on  such  occasions. 

The  fair  leader  on  one  of  these  divisions  took  the 
boy  aside  to  a  private  apartment,  to  put  into  him  with 
female  tact  and  insinuation  those  definitions  and  dis- 
tinctions on  which  the  honor  of  the  class  depended. 

"Now  Henry,  A  is  the  indefinite  article,  you  see— 
and  must  be  used  only  with  a  singular  noun.  You  can 
say  a  man — but  you  can't  say  a  men^  can  you  ?"  "Yes, 
I  can  say  Amen  too,"  was  the  ready  rejoinder.  "Father 
says  it  always  at  the  end  of  his  prayers." 

"Come  Henry,  now  don't  be  joking;  now  decline  He." 
"  Nommative  he,  possessive  his,  objective  him."  "You 
see,  His  is  possessive.    Now  you  can  say,  His  book — 


AN   INVETERATE    SCHOOL   JOKER.  515 

but  you  can't  say  'Him  book.'"  "Yes  I  do  say 
Hymn  book  too,"  said  the  impracticable  scholar  with  a 
quizzical  twinkle.  Each  one  of  these  sallies  made  his 
young  teacher  laugh,  which  was  the  victory  he  wanted. 

"But  now  Henry,  seriously,  just  attend  to  the  active 
and  passive  voice.  Now  '  I  strike '  is  active,  you  see, 
because  if  you  strike  you  do  something.  But  'I  am 
struck,'  is  passive,  because  if  you  are  struck  you  don't 
do  any  thing  do  you  ?" 

"Yes  I  do — I  strike  back  again! " 

Sometimes  his  views  of  philosophical  subjects  were 
offered  gratuitously.  Being  held  rather  of  a  frisky 
nature,  his  sister  appointed  his  seat  at  her  elbow,  when 
she  heard  her  classes.  A  class  in  Natural  Philosophy, 
not  very  well  prepared,  was  stumbling  through  the 
theory  of  the  tides.  "I  can  explain  that,"  said  Henry. 
"  Well,  you  see,  the  sun,  he  catches  hold  of  the  moon 
and  pulls  her,  and  she  catches  hold  of  the  sea  and  pulls 
that,  and  this  makes  the  spring  tides. 

^  But  what  makes  the  neap  tides  ?  " 

"  Oh,  that's  when  the  sun  stops  to  spit  on  his  hands," 
was  the  brisk  rejoinder. 

After  about  six  months,  Henry  was  returned  on  his 
parents'  hands  with  the  reputation  of  being  an  invet- 
erate joker,  and  an  indifferent  scholar.  It  was  the 
opinion  of  his  class  that  there  was  much  talent  lying 
about  loosely  in  him  if  he  could  only  be  brought  to 
apply  himself 

When  he  was  twelve  years  of  age  his  father  moved 
to  Boston.  It  was  a  great  change  to  the  two  younger 
boys,  from  the  beautiful  rural  freedom  of  a  picturesque 


516  HENRY    WARD    BEECHER. 

mountain  town  to  the  close,  strait  limits  of  a  narrow 
street  in  Boston. 

There  was  a  pure  and  vigorous  atmosphere  of  moral 
innocence  about  the  mountain  towns  of  Connecticut  in 
those  days,  which  made  the  breeding  up  of  children 
on  the  let-alone  system  quite  feasible.  There  was  no 
temptation  to  vice  or  immorality.  The  only  asso- 
ciate of  doubtful  character  forbidden  to  Henry,  for 
whose  society  he  craved,  was  Ulysses  Freeman,  a 
poor,  merry,  softly  giggling  negro  boy,  who  inhab- 
ited a  hut  not  far  off,  and  who,  it  was  feared,  might 
indiscreetly  teach  him  something  that  he  ought  not 
to  know — but  otherwise  it  was  safe  to  let  him  run 
unwatched,  in  the  wholesome  companionship  of  bob- 
o'links  and  squirrels  and  birch  woods  and  huckle- 
berry bushes.  There  was  not  in  all  Litchfield  in  those 
days  any  thing  to  harm  a  growing  boy,  or  lead  him 
into  evil. 

But  in  Boston,  the  streets,  the  wharves,  the  ship 
yards,  were  full  of  temptation — the  house,  narrow  and 
strait.  The  boy  was  put  into  the  Boston  Latin  School, 
where  the  whole  educational  process  was  a  solid  square 
attempt  to  smite  the  Latin  grammar  into  minds  of  all 
sorts  and  sizes,  by  a  pressure  like  that  by  which  coin 
is  stamped  in  the  mint.  Educated  in  loyal  obedience 
as  a  religion  and  a  habit,  pushed  up  to  make  the  effort 
by  the  entreaties  of  his  father,  by  appeals  to  his  gal- 
lantry in  overcoming  difficulties,  his  sense  of  family 
honor,  and  the  solemn  appeals  to  conscience  of  his 
mother,  Henry  set  himself  doggedly  to  learn  lists 
of  prepositions  and  terminations,  and  bead-rolls  of  nouns 
that  found  their  accusatives  or  genitives  in  this  way 


MASTERED    THE    LATIN    GRAJVIMAR.  517 

or  that,  except  in  the  case  of  two  dozen  exceptions, 
when  they  formed  them  in  some  other  way,  with  all 
the  other  dry  prickly  facts  of  language  with  which  it 
is  deemed  expedient  to  choke  the  efforts  of  beginners. 

It  was  to  him  a  grim  Sinaitic  desert,  a  land  of  dark- 
ness without  order,  where  he  wandered,  seeing  neither 
tree  or  flower ;  a  wilderness  of  meaningless  forms  and 
sounds.  His  life  was  a  desolation,  a  blind  push  to  do  what 
was  most  contrary  to  his  natural  faculties,  repulsive  to  his 
tastes,  and  in  which  with  utmost  stress  and  strain  of  ef- 
fort he  could  never  hope  to  rise  above  mediocrity.  One 
year  passed  in  this  way,  and  with  the  fear  of  disgrace  in 
the  rear  and  conscience  and  affection  goading  him  on, 
Henry  had  actually  mastered  the  Latin  grammar,  and 
could  give  any  form  or  inflection,  rule  or  exception 
therein,  but  at  an  expense  of  brain  andjierve  that  be- 
gan to  tell  even  on  his  vigorous  organization. 

The  era  of  fermentation  and  development  was  upon 
him,  and  the  melancholy  that  had  brooded  over  his 
childhood  waxed  more  turbulent  and  formidable.  He 
grew  gloomy  and  moody,  restless  and  irritable.  His 
father,  noticing  the  change,  got  him  on  a  course  of 
biographical  reading,  hoping  to  divert  his  thoughts. 
He  began  to  read  naval  histories,  the  lives  of  great 
sailors  and  commanders — the  voyages  of  Captain  Cook^ 
the  biography  of  Nelson  ;  and  immediately,  like  light- 
ning flashing  out  of  rolling  clouds,  came  the  determin- 
ation not  to  rest  any  longer  in  Boston,  learning  ter- 
minations and  prepositions,  but  to  go  forth  to  a  life  of 
enterprise.  He  made  up  his  little  bundle,  walked  the 
wharf  and  talked  with  sailors  and  captains,  hovered 
irresolute  on  the  verge  of  voyages,  never  quite  able 


518  HENRY    WARD    BEECHER. 

to  grieve  his  father  by  a  sudden  departure.  At  last 
he  wrote  a  letter  aunouncino:  to  a  brother  that  he  could 
and  would  no  longer  remain  at  school — that  he  had 
made  up  his  mind  for  the  sea;  that  if  not  permitted  to 
go,  he  should  go  without  permission.  This  letter  was 
designedly  dropped  where  his  father  picked  it  up. 
Dr.  Beecher  put  it  in  his  pocket  and  said  nothing  for 
the  moment,  but  the  next  day  asked  Henry  to  help 
him  saw  wood.  Now  the  wood-pile  was  the  Doctor's 
favorite  debating  ground,  and  Henry  felt  compliment- 
ed by  the  invitation,  as  implying  manly  companion- 
ship. 

"Let  us  see,"  says  the  Doctor,  "Henry,  how  old  are 
you?" 

"  Almost  fourteen !  " 

"  Bless  me  !  how  boys  do  grow ! — Why  it's  almost 
time  to  be  thinking  what  you  are  going  to  do.  Have 
you  ever  thought  ?  " 

"Yes — I  want  to  go  to  sea." 

"  To  sea  !  Of  all  things  !  Well,  well !  After  all,  why 
not  ? — Of  course  you  don't  want  to  be  a  common  sailor. 
You  want  to  get  into  the  navy  ?  " 

"  Yes  sir,  that's  what  I  want." 

"  But  not  merely  as  a  common  sailor,  I  suppose  ?  " 

"  No  sir,  I  want  to  be  midshipman,  and  after  that 
commodore." 

"  I  see,"  said  the  Doctor,  cheerfully,  "Well,  Henry,  in 
order  for  that,  you  know,  you  must  begin  a  course  of 
mathematics,  and  study  navigation  and  all  that." 

"  Yes  sir,  I  am  ready." 

"  Well  then,  I'll  send  you  up  to  Amherst  next  week, 
to  Mount  Pleasant,  and  then  you'll  begin  your  prepar- 


GOES  TO   AMHERST.  519 

atory  studies,  and  if  you  are  well  prepared,  I  presume 
I  can  make  interest  to  get  you  an  appointment." 

And  so  he  went  to  Mount  Pleasant,  in  Amherst, 
Mass.,  and  Dr.  Beecher  said  shrewdly,  "I  shall  have 
that  boy  in  the  ministry  yet." 

The  transfer  fi'om  the  confined  limits  of  a  city  to 
the  congenial  atmosphere  of  a  beautiful  mountain  town 
brought  an  immediate  favorable  change.  Here  he 
came  under  the  care  of  a  mathematical  teacher,  edu- 
cated at  West  Point,  a  bright  attractive  young  man 
of  the  name  of  Fitzgerald,  with  whom  he  roomed. 
Between  this  young  man  and  the  boy,  there  arose  a 
romantic  friendship.  Henry  had  no  natural  talent  or 
taste  for  mathematics,  but  inspired  by  a  desire  to  please 
his  friend,  and  high  ambition  for  his  future  profession, 
he  went  into  them  with  energy,  and  soon  did  credit  to 
his  teacher  at  the  blackboard,  laboring  perse veringly 
with  his  face  towards  the  navy,  and  Nelson  as  his  beau 
ideal. 

Here  also  he  was  put  through  a  strict  drill  in  elocu- 
tion by  Professor  John  E.  Lovell,  now  residing  in  New 
Haven,  Conn.  Of  him,  Mr.  Beecher  cherishes  a  grate- 
ful recollection,  and  never  fails  to  send  him  a  New 
Year's  token  of  remembrance.  He  says  of  him,  that 
"  a  better  teacher  in  his  department  never  was  made." 
Mr.  Beecher  had  many  natural  disabilities  for  the  line 
of  oratory  ;  and  their  removal  so  far  as  to  make  him  an 
acceptable  speaker  he  holds  due  to  the  persevering 
drill  of  Mr.  Lovell.  His  voice,  naturally  thick  and 
husky,  was  developed  -by  most  persevering,  systematic 
training.  His  gestures  and  the  management  of  his  body 
went  through  a  drill  corresponding  to  that  which  the 
32 


520 


HENRY   WARD    BEECHER. 


military  youth  goes  through  at  West  Point,  to  make 
his  body  supple  to  the  exigencies  of  military  evolution. 
As  an  orator,  this  early  training  was  of  vital  import- 
ance to  him.  He  could  never  have  attained  success 
without  it. 

At  the  close  of  the  first  year,  a  revival  of  religion 
passed  through  the  school,  and  Henry  Ward  and 
many  others  were  powerfully  impressed.  It  was  in 
fact,  on  the  part  of  the  boy,  the  mere  flashing  out  into 
visible  form  of  that  deep  undercurrent  of  religious  sen- 
sibility which  had  been  the  habit  of  his  life,  and  the 
result  of  his  whole  home  education.  His  father  sent 
for  himjiome  to  unite  with  the  church  on  a  great  com- 
munion season ;  and  the  boy,  trembling,  agitated,  awe- 
struck, full  of  vague  purposes  and  good  resolutions 
and  imperfectly  developed  ideas,  stood  up  and  took 
on  him  irrevocable  vows,  henceforth  in  his  future  life 
to  be  actively  and  openly  on  the  side  of  Christ,  in -the 
great  life  battle. 

Of  course  the  naval  scheme  vanished,  and  the  pul- 
pit opened  before  him  as  his  natural  sphere.  With 
any  other  father  or  education,  this  would  not  have  been 
an  "  of  course  ;"  but  Dr.  Beecher  was  an  enthusiast  in 
his  profession.  Every  word  of  his  life,  every  action 
or  mode  of  speaking,  had  held  it  up  before  his  boys  as 
the  goal  of  all  his  hopes,  that  they  should  preach  the 
gospel,  and  the  boy  therefore  felt  that  to  be  the  nec- 
essary obligation  which  came  upon  him  in  joining  the 
church.  He  returned  to  Amherst,  where  his  classical 
education  was  continued  for  two  years  longer,  with  a 
view  to  fit  him  for  college. 


mS   LOVE    OF    FLOWERS.  521 

The  love  of  flowers,  which  has  always  formed  so 
marked  a  branch  of  his  general  enthusiasm  for  nature 
developed  itself  at  this  time  in  a  friendship  with  a 
rather  rough  man  who  kept  a  garden.  He  was  so 
pleased  with  the  boy's  enthusiasm  that  he  set  apart  a 
scrap  of  ground  for  him  which  he  filled  with  roses 
geraniums  and  other  blooming  wonders,  and  these 
Henry  tended  under  his  instructions. 

At  that  time  the  love  of  nature  was  little  cultivated 
among  the  community.  By  very  many  good  people, 
nature  was  little  spoken  of  except  as  the  antithesis 
to  grace.  It  was  the  tempter,  the  syren  that  drew  the 
soul  from  higher  duties.  The  chaplain  of  Mount  Pleas- 
ant Institute,  a  grave  and  formal  divine,  found  Henry 
on  his  knees  in  his  little  flower  patch,  lost  in  raptur- 
ous contemplations  of  buds  and  blossoms.  He  gave 
him  an  indulgent  smile,  but  felt  it  his  duty  to  improve 
the  occasion. 

"  Ah,  Henry,"  he  said  condescendingly,  as  one  who 
makes  a  fair  admission,  "  these  things  are  pretty,  very 
pretty,  but  my  boy,  do  you  think  that  such  things  are 
worthy  to  occupy  the  attention  of  a  man  who  has  an 
immortal  soul  ?  "  Henry  answered  only  by  that  abashed 
and  stolid  look  which  covered  from  the  eyes  of  his 
superiors,  so  much  of  what  was  going  on  within  him, 
and  went  on  with  attentions  to  his  flowers.  "  I  want- 
ed to  tell  him,"  he  said  afterwards,  "that  since  Almighty 
God  has  found  leisure  to  make  those  trifles,  it  could 
not  be  amiss  for  us  to  find  time  to  look  at  them."  By 
the  time  that  Henry  had  been  three  years  in  Amherst 
he  was  prepared  to  enter  Sophomore  in  College. 
Thanks  to  his  friend  and  teacher  Fitzgerald,  his  math- 


522  HENRY   WARD   BEECHER. 

ematical  training  had  given  him  the  entii'c  mastery  of 
La  Croix's  Algebra,  so  that  he  was  prepared  to  de- 
monstrate at  random  any  proposition  as  chance  select- 
ed— not  only  without  aid  or  prompting  from  the  teach- 
er, but  controversially  as  against  the  teacher,  who  would 
sometimes  publicly  attack  the  pupil's  method  of  de- 
monstration, disputing  him  step  by  step,  when  the 
scholar  was  expected  to  know  with  such  positive  clear- 
ness as  to  put  down  and  overthrow  the  teacher.  "You 
must  not  only  knoAV,  but  you  must  know  that  you 
know,"  was  Fitzgerald's  maxim;  and  Henry  Ward 
attributes  much  of  his  subsequent  habit  of  steady  an- 
tagonistic defence  of  his  own  opinions  to  this  early 
mathematical  training. 

Though  prepared  for  the  Sophomore  class,  his  father 
however,  deemed  it  best  on  the  whole,  that  he 
should  enter  as  freshman,  and  the  advanced  state  of 
his  preparation  therefore  gave  him  leisure  the  first 
year  to  mark  out  and  commence  a  course  of  self-edu- 
cation by  means  of  the  college  libraries,  which  he 
afterwards  systematically  pursued  through  college  life. 
In  fact  he  gave  no  more  attention  to  the  college  course 
than  was  absolutely  essential  to  keep  his  standing,  but 
turned  all  the  power  of  study  and  concentrated  at- 
tention he  had  acquii'ed  in  his  previous  years,  upon  his 
own  plan  of  culture.  As  he  himself  remarks,  "  I  had 
acquired  by  the  Latin  and  mathematics,  the  power  of 
study.  I  knew  how  to  study,  and  I  turned  it  upon 
things  I  wanted  to  know."  The  Latin  and  Greek  class- 
ics did  not  attract  him.  The  want  of  social  warmth 
in  the  remove  at  which  they  stood  from  the  living 


MODES   OF   STUDY — ^A   REFORMER.  523 

present,  alienated  them  from  the  sympathies  of  one 
who  felt  his  mission  to  be  among  the  men  of  to-day, 
and  by  its  living  literature.  Oratory  and  rhetoric  he 
regarded  as  his  appointed  weapons,  and  he  began  to 
prepare  himself  in  the  department  of  lioiu  to  say — 
meanwhile  contemplating  with  uncertain  awe,  the  great 
future  problem  of  what  to  say. 

For  the  formation  of  style  he  began  a  course  of 
English  classical  study  ;  Milton's  prose  works,  Bacon, 
Shakspeare,  and  the  writers  of  the  Elizabethan  period 
were  his  classics,  read  and  re-read,  and  deeply  pon- 
dered. In  common  with  most  of  the  young  men  of 
his  period,  he  was  a  warm  admirer  of  the  writings  of 
Robert  Hall,  and  added  him  to  his  list  of  favorite  au- 
thors. His  habits  of  study  were  somewhat  peculiar. 
He  had  made  for  himself  at  the  carpenter's,  a  circular 
table,  with  a  hole  in  the  middle,  where  was  fixed  a 
seat.  Enthroned  in  this  seat  with  his  English  classics 
all  around  him,  he  read  and  joondered,  and  with  never 
ceasing  delight. 

The  stand  he  took  in  college,  was  from  the  first  that 
of  a  reformer.  He  was  always  on  the  side  of  law  and 
order,  and  being  one  of  the  most  popular  fellows  in  his 
class,  threw  the  whole  weight  of  his  popularity  in  fa^'or 
of  the  faculty,  rather  than  against  them.  He  and  his  as- 
sociates formed  a  union  of  merry  good  fellows,  who 
were  to  have  glorious  fun,  but  to  have  it  only  by  honor- 
able and  permissible  means.  Tliey  voted  down  scraping 
in  the  lecture  rooms,  and  hazing  of  students  ;  they  voted 
down  gambling  and  drinking,  and  every  form  of  secret 
vice,  and  made  the  class  rigidly  temperate  and  pure. 
Mr.  Beech er  had  received  from  family  descent  what 


524  HENRY   WARD   BEECHER. 

might  be  called  a  strictly  temperance  organization.  In  no 
part  of  his  life  did  he  ever  use,  or  was  he  ever  tempt- 
ed to  use  tobacco  or  ardent  spirits  in  any  shape.  All 
his  public  labors,  like  those  of  his  father  before  him, 
have  been  performed  by  the  strict  legal  income  of  or- 
dinary nervous  investment ;  they  have  not  been  those 
deep  ruinous  drafts  on  the  reserved  principal  of  vital 
force,  which  are  di'awn  by  the  excitements  of  extra 
stimulants. 

He  also  maintained  the  character  of  a  Christian  stu- 
dent, by  conscientious  attention  to  the  class  prayer 
meetings,  in  which  he  took  his  part,  as  well  as  by  out- 
side religious  and  temperance  labors  in  the  rural  pop- 
ulation in  the  neighborhood.  He  very  early  formed 
an  attachment  to  a  beneficiary  in  the  college,  a  man,  as 
he  says,  of  the  Isaiah  type,  large-souled,  and  full  of 
devotion,  who  took  the  boy  round  with  him  on  his 
tour  of  religious  exhortation,  insisting  with  paternal 
earnestness  that  it  was  his  immediate  duty  to  begin  to 
practice  for  the  work  of  the  Christian  ministry.  Hav- 
ing brought  him  once  or  twice  to  read  and  pray,  in  a 
little  rural  meeting,  held  in  a  school-house  in  the  out- 
skirts of  the  village,  he  solemnly  committed  the  future 
care  of  the  meeting  to  the  young  disciple,  and  went 
himself  to  look  up  another  fold.  This  meeting  Henry 
religiously  kept  up  among  his  others,  with  varying 
success,  during  his  college  career. 

The  only  thing  which  prevented  him  from  taking  the 
first  rank  as  a  religious  young  man,  was  the  want  of 
that  sobriety  and  solemnity  which  was  looked  upon  as 
essential  to  the  Christian  character.  Mr.  Beecher  was 
like  a  converted  bob-o'link,  who  should  be  brought  to 


MR.  BEECHER  AND  THE  SOLEMN  TUTOR.     525 

judgment  for  short  quirks  and  undignified  tmtters 
and  tweedles,  among  the  daisy  heads,  instead  of  fly- 
ing in  dignified  paternal  sweeps,  like  a  good  swallow 
of  the  sanctuary,  or  sitting  in  solemnized  meditation 
in  the  depths  of  pine  trees  like  the  owl. 

His  commendation  from  the  stricter  brethren  gen- 
erally came  with  the  sort  of  qualification  which  Shaks- 
peare  makes, — 

"  For  the  man  doth  fear  God,  howbeit  it  doth  not 
always  appear,  by  reason  of  some  large  jests  which  he 
will  make." 

In  fact,  Mr.  Beecher  was  generally  the  center  of  a 
circle  of  tempestuous  merriment,  ever  eddying  round 
him  in  one  droll  form  or  another.  He  was  quick  in 
repartee,  an  excellent  mimic,  and  his  stories  would 
set  the  gravest  in  a  roar.  He  had  the  art,  when  ad- 
monished by  graver  people,  of  somehow  entrapping 
them  into  more  uproarious  laughing  than  he  himself 
practiced,  and  then  looking  innocently  surprised.  Mr. 
Beecher  on  one  occasion  was  informed  that  the  head 
tutor  of  the  class  was  about  to  make  him  a  grave  ex- 
hortatory  visit.  The  tutor  was  almost  seven  feet  high, 
and  solemn  as  an  Alpine  forest,  but  Mr.  Beecher  knew 
that  like  most  solemn  Yankees,  he  was  at  heart  a  deplor- 
able wag,  a  mere  whited  sepulchre  of  conscientious 
gravity,  with  measureless  depths  of  unrenewed  chuck- 
le hid  away  in  the  depths  of  his  heart.  When  apprised 
of  his  approach,  he  suddenly  whisked  into  the  wood- 
closet  the  chairs  of  his  room,  leaving  only  a  low  one 
which  had  been  sawed  off  at  the  second  joint,  so  that 
it  stood  about  a  foot  from  the  floor.    Then  he  crawled 


526  HENRY    WARD    BEECHER. 

through  the  hole  in  his  table,  and  seated  meekly 
among  his  books,  awaited  the  visit. 

A  grave  rap,  is  heard: — "Come  in." 

Far  up  in  the  air,  the  solemn  dark  face  appears. 
Mr.  Beecher  rose  ingenuously,  and  offered  to  come  out. 
"  No,  never  mind,"  says  the  visitor,  "  I  just  came  to 
have  a  little  conversation  with  you.     Don't  move." 

"  Oh,"  says  Beecher  innocently,  '■  pray  sit  down 
sir,"  indicating  the  only  chair. 

The  tutor  looked  apprehensively,  but  began  the 
process  of  sitting  down.  He  went  down,  down,  down, 
but  still  no.  solid  ground  being  gained,  straightened 
himself  and  looked  uneasy. 

"  I  don't  know  but  that  chair  is  too  low  for  you," 
said  Beecher  meekly;  "do  let  me  get  you  another." 

"  Oh  no,  no,  my  young  friend,  don't  rise,  don't  troub- 
le yourself,  it  is  perfectly  agreeable  to  me,  in  fact  I 
like  a  low  seat,"  and  with  these  words,  the  tall  man 
doubled  up  like  a  jack-knife,  and  was  seen  sitting  with 
his  grave  face  between  his  knees,  like  a  grass-hopper 
drawn  up  for  a  spring.  He  heaved  a  deep  sigh,  and 
his  eyes  met  the  eyes  of  Mr.  Beecher ;  the  hidden  spark 
of  native  depravity  within  him  was  exploded  by  one 
glance  at  those  merry  eyes,  and  he  burst  into  a  loud  roar 
of  merriment,  which  the  two  continued  for  some  time, 
greatly  to  the  amusement  of  the  boys,  who  were  watch- 
ing to  hear  how  Beecher  would  come  out  with  his  lec- 
ture. The  chau'  was  known  in  college  afterwards,  by 
the  surname  of  the  "  Tutor's  Delight."  This  overflow 
of  the  faculty  of  mirthfulness,  has  all  his  life  deceived 
those  who  had  only  a  shallow  acquaintance  with  him, 
and  men  ignorant  of  the  depth  of  yearning  earnest- 


HIS   FAVORITE   POETRY.  527 

ness  and  profound  strength  of  purpose  on  whicli  they 
rippled  and  sparkled. 

But  at  the  time  that  he  passed  for  the  first  humorist 
of  college,  the  marks  along  his  well  worn  volumes  of 
the  old  English  poets  show  only  appreciation  of 
what  is  earnest,  deep  and  pathetic.  He  particularly 
loved  an  obscure  old  poet  of  whom  we  scarcely  hear 
in  modern  days,  Daniel,  who  succeeded  Edmund  Spen- 
ser as  poet  laureate,  and  was  a  friend  of  Shakspeare. 

Some  lines  addressed  by  him  to  the  Earl  of  South- 
ampton, are  marked  by  reiterated  lines  in  Mr.  Beech- 
er's  copy  of  the  old  English  poets,  which  showed  en- 
thusiastic reading.  He  says,  "This  was  about  the  only 
piece  of  poetry  I  ever  committed  to  memory,  but  I 
read  it  so  much  I  could  not  help  at  last  knowing  it  bv 
heart :" 

«T0  THE  EARL   OF  SOUTHAMPTON. 

"  He  who  hath  never  warred  with  misery, 
Nor  ever  tugged  with  fortune  in  distress, 
Hath  no  occasion  and  no  field  to  try 
The  strength  and  forces  of  his  worthiness. 
Those  parts  of  judgment  which  felicity 
Keeps  as  concealed,  affliction  must  express, 
And  only  men  show  their  abilities 
And  what  they  are,  in  their  extremities. 

"  Mutius  the  fire,  the  tortures  Retmlus, 
Did  make  the  miracles  of  faith  and  zeal ; 
Exile  renowned  and  graced  Rutilius. 
Imprisonment  and  poison  did  reveal 
The  worth  of  Socrates,     Fabricius' 
Poverty  did  grace  that  common  weal 
More  than  all  Sylla's  riches  got  with  strife, 
And  Cato's  death  did  vie  with  Caesar's  life. 


528  HENRY   WARD    BEECHER. 

"  He  that  endures  for  what  his  conscience  knows 
Not  to  be  ill,  doth  from  a  patience  high 
Look  on  the  only  cause  whereto  he  owes 
Those  sufferings,  not  on  his  misery ; 
The  more  he  endures  the  more  his  glory  grows, 
Which  never  grows  from  imbecility  ; 
Only  the  best  composed  and  worthiest  hearts 
God  sets  to  act  the  hardest  and  constant  'st  parts." 

Such  an  enthusiasm  shows  clearly  on  what  a  key 
the  young  man  had  set  his  life  purposes,  and  what  he 
was  looking  for  in  his  life  battle. 

Another  poem  which  bears  reiterated  marks  and 
dates,  is  to  Lady  Margaret,  Countess  of  Cumberland, 
of  which  these  lines  are  a  sample : 

"  He  that  of  such  a  height  hath  built  his  mind, 
And  reared  the  dwelling  of  his  thoughts  so  strong 
As  neither  fear  nor  hope  can  shake  the  frame 
Of  his  resolved  powers ;  nor  all  the  wind 
Of  vanity  or  malice  pierce  to  wrong 
His  settled  peace,  or  to  disturb  the  same  ; 
What  a  fair  seat  hath  he !  from  whence  he  may 
The  boundless  wastes  and  wilds  of  man  survey ! 

"  And  while  distraught  ambition  compasses 
And  is  compassed ;  whilst  as  craft  deceives 
And  is  deceived ;  while  man  doth  ransack  man, 
And  builds  on  blood,  and  rises  by  distress ; 
And  the  inheritance  of  desolation  leaves 
To  great  expecting  hopes ;  he  looks  thereon, 
As  from  the  shore  of  peace,  with  unwet  eye, 
And  bears  no  venture  in  impiety." 

These  verses  are  so  marked  with  Mr.  Beecher's  life 
habits  of  thought,  with  his  modes  of  expression,  that 
they  show  strongly  the  influence  which  these  old  poets 
had  in  forming  both  his  habits  of  thought  and  expres- 


fflS   INTRODUCTION    TO    PHRENOLOGY  529 

sion.  His  mind  naturally  aspired  after  heroism,  and 
from  the  time  that  he  gave  up  his  youthful  naval  en- 
thusiasm he  turned  the  direction  of  the  heroic  faculties 
into  moral  things. 

In  the  course  of  the  sophomore  year,  Mr.  Beecher 
was  led,  as  a  mere  jovial  frolic,  to  begin  a  course  of 
investigation  which  colored  his  whole  after  life.  A 
tall,  grave,  sober  fellow  had  been  reading  some  arti- 
cles on  Phrenology,  on  which  Spurzheim  was  then 
lecturing  in  Boston,  and  avowed  himself  a  convert. 
Quick  as  thought,  the  wits  of  college  saw  in  this  an 
occasion  for  glorious  fun.  They  proposed  to  him  with 
great  apparent  earnestness  that  he  should  deliver  a 
course  of  lectures  on  the  subject  in  Beecher's  room. 

With  all  simplicity  and  solemnity  he  complied, 
while  the  ingenuous  young  inquirers  began  busily  arm- 
ing themselves  with  objections  to  and  puzzles  for  him, 
by  reading  the  scoffing  articles  in  Blackwood  and  the 
Edinburgh.  The  fun  waxed  hearty,  and  many  saw 
nothing  in  it  but  a  new  pasture  ground  to  be  ploughed 
and  seeded  down  for  an  endless  harvest  of  college 
jokes.  But  one  day,  one  of  the  clearest  headed  and 
most  powerful  thinkers  in  the  class  said  to  Beecher, 
"What  is  your  estimate  of  the  real  logical  validity 
of  these  objections  to  Phrenology?"  "Why,"  said 
Beecher,  "I  was  thinking  that  if  these  objections  were 
all  that  could  be  alleged,  I  could  knock  them  to  piec- 
es." "So  I  think,"  said  the  other.  In  fact,  the  inan- 
ity of  the  crusade  against  the  theory  brought  forth 
converts  faster  than  its  direct  defence.  Mr.  Beecher 
and  his  associates  formed  immediately  a  club  for  phys- 
iological research.     He   himself  commenced  reading 


530  HENRY    WARD    BEECHER. 

right  and  left,  in  all  tlie  works  of  anatomy  and  phys- 
iology which  he  could  lay  hands  on,  either  in  the 
college  or  village  libraries.  He  sent  and  bought  for 
his  own  private  use,  Magendie's  Physiology,  Combe's 
Phrenology,  and  the  works  of  Gall  and  Spurzheim. 
A  phrenological  union  was  formed  to  purchase  togeth- 
er charts,  models  and  dissecting  tools,  for  the  study  of 
comparative  anatomy.  It  was  even  planned,  in  the 
enthusiasm  of  young  discipleshijD,  to  establish  a  pri- 
vate dissecting  room  for  the  club,  but  the  difiiculties 
attending  the  procuring  of  proper  subjects  prevented 
its  being  carried  into  effect.  By  correspondence  with 
his  brother  Charles,  however,  who  was  then  in  Bow- 
doin  College,  an  afl&liated  phrenological  club  was 
formed  in  that  institution,  and  his  letters  of  this  period 
were  all  on  and  about  phrenological  subjects,  and  in 
full  phrenological  dialect.  Mr.  Beecher  delivered 
three  lectures  on  the  subject  in  the  village  lyceum, 
and  did  an  infinity  of  private  writing  and  study. 

He  read  the  old  English  dramatists,  particularly 
Ben  Jonson,  Massinger,  Webster,  Ford  and  Shakspeare, 
and  wrote  out  analyses  of  their  principal  characters  on 
^phrenological  principles.  The  college  text-book  of 
mental  philosophy  was  Browne,  and  Mr.  Beecher's 
copy  of  Browne  is  marked  through  and  through,  and 
interlined  with  comparative  statements  of  the  ideas 
derived  from  his  physiological  investigation.  With 
these  also  he  carefully  read  and  analyzed  Locke,  Stu- 
art, Reid,  and  the  other  writers  of  the  Scotch  school 
As  a  writer  and  debater,  Mr,  Beecher  was  acknowl- 
edged the  first  of  the  class,  and  was  made  first  presi- 
dent of  the  Athenian  Society,  notwithstanding  it  had 


HIS   MENTAL   PHILOSOPHY.  531 

been  a  time-lionored  precedent  that  that  distinction 
should  belong  only  to  the  presumptive  valedictorian. 
The  classics  and  mathematics  he  had  abandoned  be- 
cause of  his  interest  in  other  things,  but  that  abandon- 
ment settled  the  fact  that  he  could  never  aspire  to 
high  college  honors.  He  however,  wrote  for  one  of 
his  papers  in  a  college  newspaper  a  vigorous  defence 
of  mathematical  studies,  which  won  the  approbation 
and  surprise  of  his  teachers.  It  was  a  compliment 
paid  by  rhetoric  to  her  silent  sister. 

The  phrenological  and  physiological  course  thus 
begun  in  college  was  pursued  by  few  of  the  phreno- 
logical club  in  after  life.  With  many  it  died  out  as  a 
boyish  enthusiasm ;  with  one  or  two,  as  Messrs.  Fowler 
of  New  York,  it  became  a  continuous  source  of  inter- 
est and  profit.  With  ]Vii\  Beecher  it  led  to  a  broad 
course  of  physiological  study  and  enquiry,  which,  col- 
lated with  metaphysics  and  theology,  has  formed  his 
system  of  thought  through  life.  From  that  day  he 
has  continued  the  reading  and  study  of  all  the  physio- 
logical writers  in  the  English  language.  In  fact,  he 
may  be  said  during  his  college  life  to  have  constructed 
for  himself  a  physiological  mental  philosophy  out  of 
the  writings  of  the  Scotch  metaphysical  school  and 
that  of  Combe,  Spurzheim,  and  the  other  physiologists. 
Mr.  Beecher  is  far  from  looking  on  phrenology  as  a 
perfected  science.  He  regards  it  in  relation  to  real 
truth  as  an  artist's  study  towards  a  completed  land- 
scape ;  a  study  on  right  principles  and  in  a  right  di- 
rection, but  not  as  a  completed  work.  In  his  view, 
the  phrenologists,  physiologists  and  mental  philoso- 
phers of  past  days  have  all  been  partialists,  giving  a  lim- 


532  HENRY   WARD    BEECHER. 

ited  view  of  tlie  great  subject.  The  true  mental  pliilos- 
opliy,  as  he  thinks,  is  yet  to  arise  from  a  consideration 
of  all  the  facts  and  principles  evolved  by  all  of  them. 

Thus  much  is  due  for  the  understanding  of  Mr. 
Beecher's  style,  in  which  to  a  great  extent  he  uses  the 
phrenological  terminology,  a  terminology  so  neat  and 
descriptive,  and  definite  in  respect  to  human  beings  as 
they  really  exist,  that  it  gives  a  great  advantage  to 
any  speaker.  The  terms  of  phrenology  have  in  fact 
become  accepted  as  conveniences  in  treating  of  human 
nature,  as  much  as  the  algebraic  signs  in  numbers. 

The  depth  of  Mr,  Beecher's  religious  nature  pre- 
vented this  enthusiasm  for  material  science  from  degen- 
erating into  dry  materialism.  He  was  a  Calvinist  in 
the  earnestness  of  his  intense  need  of  the  highest  and 
deepest  in  religion.  In  his  sophomore  year  there  was 
a  revival  of  religion  in  college,  in  which  his  mind 
was  powerfully  excited.  He  reviewed  the  almost 
childish  experiences  under  which  he  had  joined  the 
church,  as  possibly  deceptive,  and  tried  and  disciplined 
himself  by  those  profound  tests  with  which  the  Ed- 
wardean  theology  had  filled  the  minds  of  New  Eng- 
land. A  blank  despair  was  the  result.  He  applied  to 
Dr.  Humphrey,  who  simply  told  him  that  his  present 
feelings  were  a  work  of  the  spirit,  and  with  which  he 
dared  not  interfere.  After  days  of  almost  hopeless 
prayer,  there  came  suddenly  into  his  mind  an  inelFable 
and  overpowering  perception  of  the  Divine  love, 
which  seemed  to  him  like  a  revelation.  It  dispelled 
all  doubts,  all  fears ;  he  became  buoyant  and  triumph- 
ant, and  that  buoyancy  has  been  marked  in  his  reli- 
gious teachings  ever  since. 


DOCTRINE    OF    SPIRITUAL   DsTUITIOX.  533 

•  Mr.  Beecher's  doctrine  upon  the  subject  is  tliat  the 
truths  of  the  Divine  nature  are  undiscoverable  by  the 
mere  logical  faculties,  that  they  are  the  province  of  a 
still  hio-her  class  of  faculties  which  belono;  to  human 
nature,  the  faculties  o^  spiritual  intuition  j  that  it  is 
through  these  spiritual  intuitions  that  the  Holy  Spirit 
of  God  communes  with  man,  and  directs  through  them 
the  movements  of  the  lower  faculties.  In  full  faith  in 
the  dependence  of  man  on  the  Holy  Spirit  for  these 
spiritual  intuitions,  he  holds  substantially  the  same 
ground  with  Jonathan  Edwards,  though  he  believes 
that  Divine  influence  to  be  far  more  widely,  constant- 
ly and  fully  given  to  the  children  of  men  than  did 
that  old  divine. 

During  his  two  last  college  years,  Mr.  Beecher,  like 
other  members  of  his  class,  taught  rural  schools  during 
the  long  winter  vacations.  In  this  way  he  raised  funds 
of  his  own  to  buy  that  peculiar  library  which  his  tastes 
and  studies  caused  him  to  accumulate  about  him.  In 
both  these  places  he  performed  the  work  of  a  religious 
teacher,  preaching  and  exhorting  regularly  in  stated 
meetings,  giving  temperance  lectures,  or  doing  any 
reformatory  work  that  came  to  hand.  In  the  contro- 
versy then  arising  through  the  land  in  relation  to  slav- 
ery, Mr.  Beecher  from  the  first  took  the  ground  and 
was  willing  to  bear  the  name  of  an  abolitionist.  It 
was  a  part  of  the  heroic  element  of  "his  nature  always 
to  stand  for  the  weak,  and  he  naturally  inclined  to 
take  that  stand  in  a  battle  where  the  few  were  at  odds 
against  the  many. 

-In  1832  Dr.  Lyman  Beecher  moved  to  Cincinnati, 
two  years  before  the  completion  of  Henry's  college 
course. 


534  HEXRY    WARD    BEECHER. 

He  graduated  in  1834,  and  went  out  to  Cincinnati. 
The  abolition  excitement  at  Lane  Seminary  had  just 
ended,  by  tlie  departure  of  a  wliole  class  of  some  thirty 
students,  with  Theodore  Weld  at  their  head. 

Dr.  Beecher  was  now  the  central  point  of  a  great 
theological  battle.  ^  It  was  a  sort  of  spiritual  Armaged- 
don, being;  the  confluence  of  the  forces  of  the  Scotch- 
Irish  Presbyterian  Calvinistic  fatalism,  meeting  in 
battle  with  the  advancing  rationalism  of  New  Eng- 
land new  school  theology.  On  one  side  was  hard  lit- 
eral interpretation  of  Bible  declarations  and  the  Pres- 
byterian standards,  asserting  man's  utter  and  absolute 
natural  and  moral  inability  to  obey  God's  commands, 
and  on  the  other  side,  the  doctrine  of  man's  free  agen- 
cy, and  bringing  to  the  rendering  of  the  declarations 
of  the  scriptures  and  of  the  standards,  the  lights  of 
modern  modes  of  interpretation. 

Dr.  Wilson,  who  headed  the. attacking  party,  was  a 
man  in  many  points  marvellously  resembling  General 
Jackson,  both  in  person  and  character,  and  he  fought 
the  battle  with  the  same  gallant,  headlong  vigor  and 
sincere  unflinching  constancy.  His  habits  of  thought 
were  those  ofa  western  pioneer,  accustomed  from  child- 
hood to  battle  with  Indians  and  wild  beasts,  in  the 
frontier  life  of  an  early  state.  His  views  of  mental 
philosophy,  and  of  the  modes  of  influencing  the  human 
mind,  were  like  those  of  the  Emperor  Constantine 
when  he  commanded  a  whole  synod  of  bishops  to 
think  alike  without  a  day's  delay,  or  those  of  the  Duke 
of  Wellington,  when  he  told  the  doubting  inquirers  at 
Oxford,  that  "  the  thing  to  be  done  was  to  sign  the 
thirty -nine  articles,  and  believe  them."     The  party  he 


OLD  SCHOOL  AND  NEW  SCHOOL.         535 

headed,  were  vigorous,  powerful  and  with  all  that  im- 
meuse  advantage  which  positive  certainty  and  a  lit- 
eral, positively  expressed  belief  always  gives.  With 
such  an  army  and  such  a  general,  the  fight  of  course 
was  a  warm  one,  and  Dr.  Beecher's  sons  found  them- 
selves at  once  his  armor  bearers  in  the  thickest  of  the 
battle.  The  great  number  of  ascending  judicatories 
in  the  Presbyterian  Church  gave  infinite  scope  for  pro- 
tracting a  contest  where  every  point  of  doctrine  could 
first  be  discussed  an.d  voted  on  in  Presbytery,  then  ad. 
journed  to  Synod,  then  carried  to  General  Assembly, 
and  in  each  had  to  be  discussed  and  decided  by  majori- 
ties. What  scope  for  activity  in  those  times  !  What  rac- 
ing and  chasing  along  muddy  western  roads,  to  obscure 
towns,  each  party  hoping  that  the  length  of  the  way 
and  the  depth  of  the  mud  would  discourage  their 
opponents,  keep  them  away  and  so  give  their  own 
side  the  majority.  Dr.  Beecher  and  his  sons,  it  was 
soon  found  could  race  and  chase  and  ride  like  born 
Kentuckians,  and  that  "  free  agency"  on  horse-back, 
would  go  through  mud  and  fire,  and  water,  as  gallant- 
ly as  ever  "  natural  inability "  could.  There  was 
something  grimly  ludicrous  in  the  dismay  with  which 
Dr.  Wilson,  inured  from  his  boyhood  to  bear-fights,  and 
to  days  and  nights  spent  in  cane-brakes,  and  dens  of 
wolves,  found  on  his  stopping  at  an  obscure  log  hut  in 
the  depth  of  the  wilderness,  Dr.  Beecher  with  his  sons 
and  his  new  school  delegates,  ahead  of  him,  on  their 
way  to  Synod. 

The  study  of  theology  at  Lane  Seminary,  under  these 
circumstances,  was  very  larg-ely  from  the  controversial 
and  dialectic  point  of  view.     It  was,  to  a  great  extent, 
33 


536  HENRY    WARD    BEECHER'. 

the  science  of  defence  of  new  school  as  against  old 
school. 

Mr.  Beecher  was  enthusiastically  devoted  to  his  fa- 
ther,  and  of  course  felt  interested  in  his  success  as  a  per- 
sonal matter,  but  in  regard  to  the  whole  wide  contro- 
versy, his  interest  was  more  that  of  a  spectator  than 
of  a  partizan  on  either  side.  He  had  already  begun 
his  study  of  mental  and  moral  philosophy  on  a  broad 
eclectic  basis,  taking  great  account  of  facts  and  phe- 
nomena which  he  saw  to  be  wholly  ignored  by  the 
combatants  on  both  sides.  The  mental  philosophy  of 
Reid  and  the  Scotch  school,  on  which  Dr.  Beecher 
based  his  definitions,  he  regarded  as  only  partially  true, 
and  had  set  down  in  his  own  mind  at  a  definite  value. 
The  intense  zeal  and  perfect  undoubting  faith  with 
which  both  sides  fought  their  battle,  impressed  him  as 
only  a  strange  and  interesting  and  curious  study  in  his 
favorite  science  of  anthropology. 

He  gave  his  attention  to  the  system,  understood  it 
thoroughly,  was  master  of  all  its  modes  of  attack, 
fence  and  defence,  but  he  did  it  much  as  a  person  now- 
a  days  might  put  on  a  suit  of  mediseval  armor,  and 
study  mediaeval  tactics. 

Mr.  Beecher  had  inherited  from  his  father  what  has 
been  called  a  genius  for  friendship.  He  was  never 
without  the  anchor  of  an  enthusiastic  personal  attach- 
ment for  somebody,  and  at  Lane  Seminary,  he  formed 
such  an  intimacy  w^ith  Professor  C.  E.  Stowe,  whose 
room-mate  for  some  length  of  time  he  was,  and  in 
whose  society  he  took  great  delight.  Professor  Stowe, 
a  man  devoted  to  scholarly  learning  and  Biblical  crit- 
icism, was  equally  with  young  Beecher  standing  as  a 


PUNCTUALITY  FOR  JOKe's  SAKE.        537 

spectator  in  the  great  theological  contest  which  was 
raging  around  him,  and  which  he  surveyed  from  still 
another  stand-point,  of  ecclesiastical  history  and  bibli- 
cal criticism.  It  was  some  considerable  inconvenience 
to  the  scholarly  professor,  to  be  pulled  up  from  his 
darling  books,  and  his  interjections  were  not  always 
strictly  edifying  when  he  was  raced  through  muddy 
lanes,  and  rattled  over  corduroy  roads,  under  the  vig- 
orous generalship  of  Dr.  Beecher,  all  that  he  might 
give  his  vote  for  or  against  some  point  of  doctrine, 
which,  in  his  opinion,  common  sense  had  decided  ages 
ago.  He  was  also,  somewhat  of  a  strict  disciplinarian 
and  disposed  to  be  severe  on  the  discursive  habits  of 
his  young  friend,  who  was  quite  too  apt  to  neglect  or 
transcend  conventional  rule.  The  morning  prayers  at 
Lane  were  at  conventual  hours,  and  Henry's  devotion- 
al propensities,  of  a  dark  cold  winter  morning,  were  al- 
most impossible  to  be  aroused,  while  his  friend,  who 
was  punctuality  itself,  was  always  up  and  away  in  the 
gloaming.  One  morning,  when  the  Professor  had  in- 
dignantly rebuked  the  lazy  young  Christian,  whom  he 
left  tucked  in  bed,  and,  shaking  the  dust  from  his 
feet,  had  departed  to  his  morning  duties,  Henry  took 
advantage  of  his  own  habits  of  alert  motion,  sprang 
from  the  bed,  dressed  himself  in  a  twinkling,  and  tak- 
ing a  cross-lot  passage,  was  found  decorously  sitting 
directly  under  thg  Professor's  desk,  waiting  for  him, 
when  he  entered  to  conduct  prayers.  The  stare  of 
almost  frightened  amazement  with  which  the  Profes- 
sor met  him,  was  the  ample  reward  of  his  exertions. 
Though  Professor  Stowe  never  succeeded  in  mak- 
ing him  an  exact  linguist,  or  shaping  him  into  a  bibli- 


538  HENRY  WARD  BEE  CHER. 

cal  scholar,  yet  lie  was  of  great  service  to  him  in  start- 
ing  his  mind  in  a  right  general  direction  in  the  study 
of  the  Bible.  The  old  and  the  new  school  were  both 
too  much  agreed  in  using  the  Bible  as  a  carpenter  does 
his  nail-box,  going  to  it  only  to  find  screws  and  nails 
to  hold  together  the  framework  of  a  theological 
system.  Professor  Stowe  inspired  him  with  the  idea 
of  surveying  the  books  of  the  Bible  as  divinely  in- 
spired compositions,  yet  truly  and  warmly  human, 
and  to  be  rendered  and  interpreted  by  the  same  rules 
of  reason  and  common  sense  which  pertain  to  all  human 
documents. 

As  the  time  drew  near  in  which  Mr.  Beecher  was 
to  assume  the  work  of  the  ministry,  he  was  oppressed 
by  a  deep  melancholy.  He  had  the  most  exalted 
ideas  of  what  ought  to  be  done  by  a  Christian  minister. 
He  had  transferred  to  that  profession  all  those  ideals  of 
courage,  enterprise,  zeal  and  knightly  daring  which 
were  the  dreams  of  his  boyhood,  and  which  he  first 
hoped  to  realize  in  the  naval  profession.  He  felt  that 
the  holy  calling  stood  high  above  all  others,  that  to 
enter  it  from  any  unholy  motive,  or  to  enter  and 
not  do  a  worthy  work  in  it,  was  a  treason  to  all  honor. 

His  view  of  the  great  object  of  the  ministry  was 
sincerely  and  heartily  the  same  with  that  of  his  father; 
to  secure  the  regeneration  of  the  individual  heart  by 
the  Divine  spirit,  and  thereby  to  effect  the  regenera- 
tion of  human  society.  The  problem  that  oppressed 
him  was,  how  to  do  this.  His  father  had  used  certain 
moral  and  intellectual  weapons,  and  used  them  strong- 
ly and  effectively,  because  employing  them  with  un- 
doubting  faith.      So  many  other  considerations  had 


DOUBTS    ON    ENTERIXG    THE    MINISTRY.  539 

come  into  his  mind  to  qualify  and  limit  that  faith,  so 
many  new  modes  of  thought  and  inquiry,  that  were 
partially  inconsistent  with  the  received  statements  of 
his  party,  that  he  felt  he  could  never  grasp  and  wield 
them  with  the  force  which  would  make  them  efficient. 
It  was  no  comfort  to  him  that  he  could  wield  the  weap- 
ons of  his  theological  party,  so  as  to  dazzle  and  con- 
found objectors,  while  all  the  time  conscious  in  his  own 
soul  of  objections  more  profound  and  perplexities  more 
bewildering.  Like  the  shepherd  boy  of  old,  he  saw 
the  giant  of  sin  stalking  through  the  world,  defying 
the  armies  of  the  living  God,  and  longed  to  attack  him, 
but  the  armor  in  which  he  had  been  equipped  for  the 
battle  was  no  help,  but  only  an  incumbrance ! 

His  brother,  who  studied  with  him,  had  already  be- 
come an  unbeliever,  and  thrown  up  the  design  of 
preaching,  and  he  could  not  bear  to  think  of  adding 
to  his  father's  trials  by  deserting  the  standard.  Yet 
his  distress  and  perplexity  were  so  great  that  at  times 
he  seriously  contemplated  going  into  some  other  pro- 
fession. 

What  to  say  to  make  men  Christians, — how  to  raise 
man  to  God  really  and  truly, — was  to  him  an  awful 
question.  Nothing  short  of  success  in  this  appeared 
to  him  success  in  the  Christian  ministry. 

Pending  these  mental  conflicts,  he  performed  some 
public  labors.  He  was  for  four  or  five  months  editor 
of  the  Cincinnati  Journal,  +he  organ  of  the  N.  S.  Pres- 
byterian Church,  during  the  absence  of  Mr.  Brainard. 
While  he  was  holding  this  post,  the  pro-slavery  riot 
which  destroyed  Birney's  press  occurred,  and  the  ed- 
itorials of  the  young  editor  at  this  time  were  copied 


540  HENRY  WARD  BEE CHER. 

with  high  approval  by  Charles  Hammond,  of  the  Cin- 
cinnati Gazette,  uudoubtedly  the  ablest  editor  of  the 
West,  and  the  only  other  editor  who  dared  to  utter  a 
word  condemnatory  of  the  action  of  the  rioters.  Mr. 
Beecher  entered  on  the  defence  of  the  persecuted  ne- 
groes with  all  the  enthusiasm  of  his  nature.  He  had 
always  a  latent  martial  enthusiasm,  and  though  his 
whole  life  had  been  a  peaceful  one,  yet  a  facility  in 
the  use  of  carnal  weapons  seemed  a  second  nature, 
and  at  this  time,  he,  with  a  number  of  other  young 
men  went  to  the  mayor  and  were  sworn  in  as  a  special 
body  of  police,  who  patroled  the  streets,  well  armed. 
Mr.  Beecher  wore  his  pistol,  and  was  determined,  should 
occasion  arise,  to  use  it.  But  as  usual  in  such  cases,  a 
resolute  front  once  shown  dissolved  the  mob  entirely. 
In  his  last  theological  term  he  took  a  Bible  class  in 
the  city  of  Cincinnati,  and  began  studying  and  teach- 
ing the  evangelists.  With  the  course  of  this  study 
and  teaching  came  a  period  of  spiritual  clairvoyance. 
His  mental  perplexities  were  relieved,  and  the  great 
question  of  "what  to  preach,"  was  solved.  The  shep- 
herd boy  laid  aside  his  cumbrous  armor,  and  found 
in  a  clear  brook  a  simple  stone  that  smote  down  the 
giant,  and  so  from  the  clear  waters  of  the  gospel  nar- 
rative, Mr.  Beecher  drew  forth  that  "white  stone  with 
a  new  name,"  wdiich  was  to  be  the  talisman  of  his 
ministry.  To  present  Jesus  Christ,  personally,  as  the 
Friend  and  Helper  of  Humanity,  Christ  as  God  im- 
personate, eternally  and  by  a  necessity  of  his  nature 
helpful  and  remedial  and  restorative ;  the  friend  of 
each  individual  soul,  and  thus  the  friend  of  all  society ; 
this  was  the  one  thing  which  his  soul  rested  on  as  a 


SETTLEMENT    AT    LAWRENCEBURG.  541 

worthy  object  in  entering  the  ministry.  He  afterward 
said,  in  speaking  of  his  feelings  at  this  time  :  "I  was 
like  the  man  in  the  story  to  whom  a  fairy  gave  a 
purse  with  a  single  piece  of  money  in  it,  which  he 
found  always  came  again  as  soon  as  he  had  spent  it. 
I  thought  I  knew  at  last  one  thing  to  preach,  I  found 
it  included   everything." 

Immediately  on  finishing  his  theological  course,  Mr. 
Beecher  married  and  was  settled  in  Lawrenceburg. 
He  made  short  work  of  the  question  of  settlement, 
accepting  the  very  first  offer  that  was  made  him.  It 
was  work  that  he  wanted,  and  one  place  he  thought 
about  as  good  as  another.  His  parish  was  a  little  town 
on  the  Ohio  river,  not  far  from  Cincinnati.  Here  he 
preached  in  a  small  church,  and  did  all  the  work  of 
the  parish  sexton,  making  his  fires,  trimming  his  lamps, 
sweeping  his  house,  and  ringing  his  bell.  "I  did  all," 
he  said  whimsically,  "but  come  to  hear  myself  preach 
— that  they  had  to  do."  The  little  western  villages 
of  those  days  had  none  of  the  attractions  of  New 
England  rural  life.  They  were  more  like  the  back 
suburbs  of  a  great  city,  a  street  of  houses  without 
yards  or  gardens,  run  up  for  the  most  part  in  a  cheap 
and  flimsy  manner,  and  the  whole  air  of  society  mark- 
ed with  the  imj)ress  of  a  population  who  have  no  local 
attachments,  and  are  making  a  mere  temporary  sojourn 
for  money-getting  purposes.  Mr.  Beecher  was  soon 
invited  from  Lawrenceburg  to  Indianapolis,  the  capital 
of  the  State,  where  he  labored  for  eight  years. 

His  life  here  was  of  an  Arcadian  simplicity.  He 
inhabited  a  cottage  on  the  outskirts  of  the  town,  where 
he  cultivated  a  garden,   and   gathered   around   him 


542  HENRY   WARD   BEECHER.' 

horse,  cow  and  pig ;  all  that  wholesome  suite  of  do- 
mestic animals  which  he  had  been  accustomed  to  care 
for  in  early  life.  He  was  an  enthusiast  on  all  these 
matters,  fastidious  about  breeds  and  blood,  and  each 
domestic  animal  was  a  pet  and  received  his  own  per- 
sonal attentions.  In  the  note-books  of  this  period, 
amid  hints  for  sermons,  come  memoranda  respecting 
his  favorite  Berkshire  pig,  or  Durham  cow.  He  read 
on  gardening,  farming,  and  stock-raising,  all  that  he 
could  lay  hands  on ;  he  imported  from  eastern  culti- 
vators all  sorts  of  roses  and  all  sorts  of  pear  trees  and 
grape  vines,  and  edited  a  horticultural  paper,  which 
had  quite  a  circulation. 

All  this  was  mainly  the  amusement  of  his  leisure 
hours,  as  he  preached  always  twice  on  Sunday,  and 
held  at  an  average  five  other  meetings  a  week  in  dif- 
ferent districts  of  the  city.  For  three  months  of  every 
year,  by  consent  of  his  people,  he  devoted  himself  to 
missionary  duty  through  the  State,  riding  from  point 
to  point  on  horseback,  and  preaching  every  day  of 
the  week. 

In  his  theological  studies  he  had  but  just  two  vol- 
umes— the  Bible  and  human  nature,  which  he  held  to 
be  indispensable  to  the  understanding  each  of  the 
other.  He  said  to  himself,  "The  Apostles  who  first 
preached  Christ,  made  converts  who  were  willing  to 
dare  or  do  anything  for  him.  How  did  they  do  this?" 
He  studied  all  the  recorded  discourses  of  the  Apostles 
in  the  book  of  Acts,  in  his  analytical  method,  asking, 
to  what  principles  of  human  nature  did  they  appeal  ? 
What  were  their  methods  of  statement  ?  He  endeav- 
ored to  compose  sermons  on  similar  principles,  and 


HIS    STUDIES FIRST    REVIVAL.  543 

test  them  by  their  effects  on  men.  He  noticed  that 
the  Apostles  always  based  their  appeals  to  men  on 
some  common  truth,  admitted  by  both  parties  alike ; 
that  they  struck  at  the  great  facts  of  moral  conscious- 
ness, and  he  imitated  them  in  this.  He  was  an  intense 
observer  and  student  of  men  as  they  are.  His  large 
social  talent,  his  predominating  play  of  humor  and 
drollery,  were  the  shields  under  which  he  was  con- 
stantly carrying  on  his  inquiries  into  what  man  is,  and 
how  he  can  be  reached.  Seated  in  the  places  where 
men  congregate  to  loaf  and  talk,  he  read  his  newspa- 
per with  his  eyes  and  ears  open  to  more  than  its  pages. 
His  preaching  began  to  draw  listeners  as  a  new  style 
of  thing.  Its  studies  into  human  nature,  its  searching 
analysis  of  men  and  their  ways,  drew  constant  listen- 
ers. His  fame  spread  through  the  country,  and  mul- 
titudes, wherever  he  went,  flocked  to  hear  him.  Still, 
Mr.  Beecher  did  not  satisfy  himself  To  be  a  popular 
preacher,  to  be  well  spoken  of,  to  fill  up  his  church, 
did  not  after  all  satisfy  his  ideal.  It  was  necessary 
that  the  signs  of  an  Apostle  should  be  wrought  in  him 
by  his  having  the  power  given  to  work  the  great,  deep 
and  permanent  change  which  unites  the  soul  to  God. 
It  was  not  till  about  the  third  year  of  his  ministry  that 
he  found  this  satisfaction  in  a  great  revival  of  religion 
in  Terre  Haute,  which  was  followed  by  a  series  of 
such  revivals  through  the  State,  in  which  he  was  for 
many  months  unceasingly  active.  When  he  began  to 
see  whole  communities  moving-  tosfether  under  a 
spiritual  impulse,  the  grog-shops  abandoned,  the 
votaries  of  drunkenness,  gambling  and  dissipation  re- 
claimed, reformed,   and   sitting  at  the  feet  of  Jesus, 


544  HENRY   WARD    BEECHEP 

clothed  and  in  their  right  mind,  he  felt  that  at  last  he 
had  attained  what  his  soul  thirsted  for,  and  that  he 
could  enter  into  the  joy  of  the  Apostles  when  they 
returned  to  Jesus,  saying,  "Lord,  by  thy  name  even 
the  devils  were  made  subject  unto  us." 

His  preaching  of  Christ  at  this  time  was  spoken  of 
as  something  very  striking  in  its  ceaseless  iteration  of 
one  theme,  made  constantly  new  and  various  by  new 
applications  to  human  want  and  sin  and  sorrow. 

A  member  of  his  church  in  Indianapolis,  recently, 
in  writing  the  history  of  the  church  with  which  he 
was  connected,  thus  gives  his  recollections  of  him : 

"In  the  early  spring  of  1842,  a  revival  began,  more 
noticeable,  perhaps,  than  any  that  this  church  or  this 
community  has  seen.  The  whole  town  was  pervaded 
by  the  influences  of  religion.  For  many  weeks  the 
work  continued  with  unabated  power,  and  at  three 
communion  seasons,  held  successively  in  February, 
March  and  April,  1842,  nearly  one  hundred  persons 
were  added  to  the  church  on  profession  of  their  faith. 
This  was  God's  work.  It  is  not  improper,  however, 
to  speak  of  the  pastor  in  that  revival,  as  he  is  remem- 
bered by  some  of  the  congregation,  plunging  through 
the  wet  streets,  his  trousers  stuffed  in  his  muddy  boot- 
legs, earnest,  untiring,  swift ;  with  a  merry  heart,  a 
glowing  face,  and  a  helpful  word  for  every  one ;  the 
whole  day  preaching  Christ  to  the  people  where  he 
could  find  them,  and  at  night  preaching  still  where 
the  people  were  sure  to  find  him.  It  is  true  that  in 
this  revival  some  wood  and  hay  and  stubble  were 
gathered  with  the  gold  and  silver  and  precious  stones. 
As  in  all  new  communities,  there  was  special  danger 


LARGE   ACCESSIONS    TO    THE    CHURCH.  545 

of  unliealthy  excitement.  But  in  general  the  results 
were  most  happy  for  the  church  and  for  the  town. 
Some  of  those  who  have  been  pillars  since,  found  the 
Saviour  in  that  memorable  time.  Nor  was  the  awak- 
ening succeeded  by  an  immediate  relapse. 

"Early  in  the  following  year,  at  the  March  and 
April  communions,  the  church  had  large  accessions, 
and  it  had  also  in  1845.  There  was,  indeed,  a  whole- 
some and  nearly  continuous  growth  up  to  the  time 
when  the  first  pastor  resigned,  to  accept  a  call  to  the 
Plymouth  Congregational  church,  in  Brooklyn,  New 
York.  This  occurred  August  24th,  1847,  and  on  the 
nineteenth  of  the  following  month  Mr.  Beecher's  la- 
bors for  the  congregation  ceased. 

"  The  pastorate,  thus  terminated,  had  extended 
through  more  than  eight  years.  During  this  time 
much  had  been  accomplished.  The  society  had  built 
a  pleasant  house  of  worship.  The  membership  had 
advanced  from  thirty-two  to  two  hundred  and  seventy- 
five.  What  was  considered  a  doubtful  enterprise, 
inaugurated  as  it  had  been  amidst  many  prophecies  of 
failure,  had  risen  to  an  enviable  position,  not  only  in 
the  capital  but  in  the  State.  The  attachment  between 
pastor  and  people  had  become  peculiarly  strong. 
Mutual  toils  and  sufferings  and  successes  had  bound 
them  fiist  together.  Only  the  demands  of  a  wider 
field,  making  duty  plain,  divided  them,  and  a  recent 
letter  proves  that  the  pastor's  early  charge  still  keeps 
its  hold  upon  his  heart.  It  is  not  to  be  wondered  at 
that  the  few  of  his  flock  who  yet  remain  among  us 
always  speak  of  '  Henry '  with  beaming  eyes  and  mel- 
lowed voices." 


546  HENRY    WARD    BEECHER. 

One  expression  in  this  extract  will  show  a  peculiar- 
ity which  strongly  recalls  the  artless,  unconventional 
freshness  of  Western  life  in  those  days.  The  young 
pastor,  though  deeply  and  truly  respected  by  all  his 
elders  and  church  members,  was  always  addressed  as 
"Henry,"  by  them  with  a  sort  of  family  intimacy  and 
familiarity.  It  was  partly  due  to  the  simple,  half 
woodland  habits  of  the  people,  and  partly  to  that 
quality  in  the  pastor  that  made  every  elderly  man 
love  him  as  a  son  and  every  younger  one  as  a  brother. 

Henry's  tastes,  enthusiasms,  and  fancies,  his  darling 
garden,  with  its  prize  vegetables  and  choice  roses, 
whence  came  bouquets  for  the  a3sthetic,  and  more 
solid  presents  of  prize  onions  or  squashes  for  the  more 
literal — all  these  seemed  to  be  part  and  parcel  of  the 
family  stock  of  his  church.  His  brother  Charles,  who 
from  intellectual  difficulties  had  abandoned  the  minis- 
try, and  devoted  himself  to  a  musical  life  as  a  profes- 
sion, inhabited,  with  his  wife  and  young  family,  a  little 
cottage  in  the  same  grounds  with  his  own,  and  shared 
his  garden  labors,  and  led  the  music  of  his  church. 
"Henry  and  Charles "  were  as  familiarly  spoken  of  and 
known  in  Indianapolis  circles  as  Castor  and  Pollux 
among  the  astronomers.  In  one  of  the  revivals  in 
Indianapolis,  Charles,  like  his  brother  before  him, 
found  in  an  uplift  of  his  moral  faculties  a  tide  to  carry 
him  over  the  sunken  rocks  of  his  logic.  By  his  broth- 
er's advice,  he  took  a  Bible  class,  and  began  the  story 
of  the  life  of  Christ,  and  the  result  was  that  after  a 
while  he  saw  his  way  clear  to  oifer  himself  for  ordina- 
tion, and  was  settled  in  the  ministry  in  Fort  Wayne, 
Indiana,     Thus  that  simple  narrative  had  power  to 


"tropical  style."  547 

allay  the  speculative  doubts  of  both  brothers,  and  to 
give  them  an  opening  into  the  ministry, 

Mr.  Beecher  has  always  looked  back  with  peculiar 
tenderness  to  that  Western  life,  in  the  glow  of  his 
youthful  days,  and  in  that  glorious,  rich,  abundant, 
unworn  Western  country.  The  West,  with  its  wide, 
rich,  exuberant  spaces  of  land,  its  rolling  prairies, 
garlanded  with  rainbows  of  ever-springing  flowers, 
teeming  with  abundance  of  food  for  man,  and  opening 
in  every  direction  avenues  for  youthful  enterprise  and 
hope,  was  to  him  a  morning  land.  To  carry  Christ's 
spotless  banner  in  high  triumph  through  such  a  land, 
was  a  thing  worth  living  for,  and  as  he  rode  on  horse- 
back alone,  from  day  to  day,  along  the  rolling  prairie 
lands,  sometimes  up  to  his  horse's  head  in  grass  and 
waving  flowers,  he  felt  himself  kindled  with  a  sort  of 
ecstacy.  The  prairies  rolled  and  blossomed  in  his 
sermons,  and  his  style  at  this  time  had  a  tangled  lux- 
uriance of  poetic  imagery,  a  rush  and  abundance  of 
words,  a  sort  of  rich  and  heavy  involution,  that  resem- 
bled the  growth  of  a  tropical  forest. 

"What  sort  of  a  style  am  I  forming ?"  he  said  to  a 
critical  friend,  who  had  come  to  hear  him  preach. 

"Well,  I  should  call  it  the  'tropical  style,'"  was 
the  reply. 

The  Western  people,  simple  and  strong,  shrewd  as 
Yankees,  and  excitable  and  fervent  as  Southerners, 
full  of  quaint  images  and  peculiar  turns  of  expression 
derived  from  a  recent  experience  of  back-woods  life, 
were  an  open  page  in  his  great  book  of  human  na- 
ture, where  character  revealed  itself  with  an  artless 
freshness.     All  the  habits  of  society  had  an  unconven- 


548  HENRY   WARD   BEECHER. 

tional  simplicity.  People  met  with  the  salutation, 
"How  are  ye,  stranger?  "  and  had  no  thought  of  any 
formal  law  of  society,  why  one  human  being  might 
not  address  another  on  equal  terms,  and  speak  out  his 
mind  on  all  subjects  fully.  When  invited  to  supper 
at  a  thrifty  farmer's,  the  supper  board  was  spread  in 
the  best  bed-room,  the  master  and  mistress  stood  be- 
hind the  chairs  of  their  guests  and  waited  on  them 
during  the  meal,  and  the  table  groaned  with  such  an 
abundance  of  provision  as  an  eastern  imagination 
fails  to  conceive  of  Every  kind  of  fowl,  choicely 
cooked,  noble  hams,  sausages,  cheese,  bread,  butter, 
biscuit,  corn  cakes  in  every  variety,  sweet  cakes  and 
confections,  preserved  fruits  of  every  name,  with 
steaming  tea  and  coffee,  were  all  indispensable  to  a 
good  supper. 

Of  poverty,  properly  so  called,  there  was  very  little. 
There  were  none  of  those  distressing,  unsolvable  so- 
cial problems  which  perplex  the  mind  and  burden  the 
heart  of  a  pastor  in  older  states  of  society. 

Mr.  Beecher's  ecclesiastical  brethren  w^cre  compan- 
ions of  whom  he  never  fails  to  speak  with  tender  re- 
spect and  enthusiastic  regard.  Some  of  them,  like 
Father  Dickey,  were  men  who  approached  as  near  the 
apostolic  ideal,  in  poverty,  simplicity,  childlike  sincer- 
ity, and  unconquerable,  persevering  labor,  as  it  is 
possible  to  do.  They  were  all  strong,  fearless  anti- 
slavery  men,  and  the  resolutions  of  the  Indiana  Synod 
were  always  a  loud,  unsparing  and  never-failing  testi- 
mony against  any  complicity  with  slavery  in  the  Pres- 
byterian church. 


MINISTERIAL   JOKES.  549 

As  to  the  great  theological  controversy  that  divided 
the  old  and  new  school  church,  Mr.  Beecher  dropped 
it  at  once  and  forthwith,  being  in  his  whole  nature 
essentially  uncontroversial.  It  came  to  pass  that  some 
of  his  warmest  personal  friends  were  members  of  the 
Old  School  church  in  Indianapolis,  and  offspring  of  the 
very  fiercest  combatants  who  had  fought  his  father  in 
Cincinnati. 

Mr.  Beecher  was  on  terms  of  good  fellowship  with 
all  denominations.  There  were  in  Indianapolis,  Bap- 
tists, Methodists,  and  an  Episcopal  minister,  but  he 
stood  on  kindly  social  terms  with  all.  The  spirit  of 
Western  society  was  liberal,  and  it  was  deemed  edifying 
by  the  common  sense  masses  that  the  clergy  of  different 
denominations  should  meet  as  equals  and  brothers. 
Mr.  Beecher's  humorous  facultv  crave  to  him  a  sort  of 
universal  coin  which  passed  current  in  all  sorts  of  cir- 
cles, making  every  one  at  ease  widi  him.  Human 
nature  longs  to  laugh,  and  a  laugh,  as  Shakspeare 
says,  "done  in  the  testimony  of  a  good  conscience," 
will  often  do  more  to  bring  together  wrangling  theo- 
logians than  a  controversy. 

There  was  a  store  in  Indianapolis,  where  the  minis- 
ters of  all  denominations  often  dropped  in  to  hear 
the  news,  and  where  the  free  western  nature  made  it 
always  in  rule  to  try  each  others  metal  with  a  joke. 
No  matter  how  sharp  the  joke,  it  was  considered  to 
be  all  fair  and  friendly. 

On  one  occasion,  Mr.  Beecher,  riding  to  one  of  the 
stations  of  his  mission,  was  thrown  over  his  horse's 
head  in  crossing  the  Miami,  pitched  into  the  water, 
and  crept  out  thoroughly  immersed.      The  incident  of 


550  HENRY    WARD    BEECHER. 

course  furnislied  occasion  for  talk  in  the  circles  the 
next  day,  and  his  good  friend  the  Baptist  minister 
proceeded  to  attack  him  the  moment  he  made  his 
appearance. 

"  Oh,  ho,  Beecher,  glad  to  see  you !  I  thought  you'd 
have  to  come  into  our  ways  at  last !  YouVe  been  im- 
mersed at  last;  you  are  as  good  as  any  of  us  now."  A 
general  laugh  followed  this  sally. 

"  Poll,  poh,"  was  the  ready  response,  "my  immer- 
sion was  a  different  thing  from  that  of  your  converts. 
You  see,  I  was  immersed  by  a  horse^  not  by  an  ass." 

A  chorus  of  laughter  proclaimed  that  Beecher  had 
got  the  better  of  the  joke  for  this  time. 

A  Methodist  brother  once  said  to  him,  "  Well  now, 
really.  Brother  Beecher,  what  have  you  against  Meth- 
odist doctrines  ?  " 

"Nothing,  only  that  your  converts  will  practice 
them." 

"Practice  them  ?" 

"Yes,  you  preach  falling  from  grace,  and  your  con- 
verts practice  it  with  a  vengeance." 

One  morning  as  he  was  sitting  at  table,  word  was 
brought  in  that  his  friend,  the  Episcopal  minister,  was 
at  the  gate,  wanting  to  borrow  his  horse. 

"  Stop,  stop,"  said  he,  with  a  face  of  great  gravity, 
"there's  something  to  be  attended  to  first,"  and  rising 
from  table,  he  ran  out  to  him  and  took  his  arm  with  the 
air  of  a  man  who  is  about  to  make  a  serious  proposition. 

"  Now  brother  G — ,  you  want  my  horse  for  a  day? 
Well,  you  see,  it  lies  on  my  mind  greatly  that  you  don't 
admit  my  ordination.  I  don't  think  it's  fair.  Now  if 
you'll  admit  that  I'm  a  genuinely  ordained  minister, 


SLAVERY    IN    THE    PULPIT.  551 

you  shall  Lave  my  horse,  but  if  not,  I  don't  know 
about  it." 

Mr.  Beecher  took  ground  from  the  first  that  the 
pulpit  is  the  place  not  only  for  the  presentation  of 
those  views  which  tend  to  unite  man's  spiritual  nature 
directly  with  God,  but  also  for  the  consideration  of  all 
those  specific  reforms  which  grow  out  of  the  doctrine 
of  Christ  in  society.  He  preached  openly  and  boldly 
on  specific  sins  prevailing  in  society,  and  dangerous 
practices  which  he  thought  would  coiTupt  or  injure. 

There  was  a  strong  feeling  in   Indianapolis  against 
introducing  slavery  into  the  discussions  of  the  pulpit. 
Some  of  his  principal  men  had  made  vehement  dec- 
larations that  the  subject  never  should  be  named  in 
the  pulpit  of  any  church  with  which   they  were  con- 
nected.    Mr.   Beecher,  among  his  earliest  motions  in 
Synod,   however,  introduced  a  resolution  that  every 
minister  should  preach  a  thorough  exposition  and  con- 
demnation of  slavery.     He  fulfilled  his  part  very  char- 
acteristically, by  preaching  three  sermons  on  the  life 
of  Moses,  the  bondage  of  the  children  of  Israel  under 
Pharaoh  and  their  deliverance.     Under  this  cover  he 
gained  the  ear  of  the  people,  for  it  has  always  been 
held  both  orthodox  and  edifying  to  bombard  the  vices 
and  crimes  of  old  Testament  sinners,  and  to  show  no 
mercy  to  their  iniquities.     Before  they  were  aware  of 
it  however,  his  hearers  found  themselves  listening  to  a 
hot  and  heavy  attack  on  the  existing  system  of  Amer- 
ican slavery,  which  he  exposed  in  a  most  thorough, 
searching  manner,  and  although  the  oppressor  was 
called   Pharaoh   and   the    scene   was   Egypt,  and   so 
34 


552  HENRY  WARD  BEE  CHER. 

nobody  could  find  fault  with  the  matter  of  the  dis- 
course, the  end  and  aim  was  very  manifest. 

Nobody  was  offended,  but  many  were  convinced, 
and  from  that  time,  Mr.  Beecher  preached  Anti-Sla- 
very sermons  in  his  church  just  as  often  as  he  thought 
best,  and  his  church  became  an  efficient  bulwark  of 
the  cause. 

The  Western  states  at  this  time  were  the  scenes  of 
much  open  vice.  Gambling,  drinking,  licentiousness 
were  all  rife  in  the  community,  and  against  each  of 
these,  Mr.  Beecher  lifted  up  his  testimony.  A  course 
of  sermons  on  those  subjects  preached  in  Indianapolis 
and  afterwards  published  under  the  title  of  "  Lectures 
to  Young  Men,"  excited  in  the  day  of  their  delivery  a 
great  sensation.  The  style  is  that  of  fervid,  almost  trop- 
ical fullness,  which  characterized  his  Western  life.  It 
differs  from  the  sermons  of  most  clergymen  to  young 
men,  in  that  free  and  perfect  knowledge  it  shows  of  all 
the  details  of  the  evil  ways  which  he  names.  Mr. 
Beecher's  peculiar  social  talent,  his  convivial  powers, 
and  his  habits  of  close  Shaksperian  observation,  gave 
him  the  key  of  human  nature.  Many  a  gambler  or 
drunkard,  in  their  better  hours  were  attracted  towards 
a  man  who  met  them  as  a  brother,  and  seemed  to  value 
and  aim  for  the  better  parts  of  their  nature.  When 
Mr.  Beecher  left  Indianapolis  some  of  his  most  touch- 
ing interviews  and  parting  gifts  were  from  men  of  this 
class,  whom  he  had  followed  in  their  wanderings  and 
tried  to  save.  Some  he  could  save  and  some  were  too 
far  in  the  whirlpool  for  his  arm  to  pull  them  out.  One 
of  them  said  when  he  heard  of  his  leaving,  "Before 


THE    TRANSFER   TO   BROOKLYN.  553 

any  thing  or  any  body  on  earth,  I  do  love  Beecher. 
I  know  he  would  have  saved  me  if  he  could." 

Mr.  Beecher  was  so  devoted  to  the  West,  and  so 
identified  with  it,  that  he  never  would  have  left  what 
he  was  wont  to  call  his  bishopric  of  Indiana,  for  the 
older  and  more  set  and  conventional  circles  of  New 
York,  had  not  the  health  of  his  family  made  a  removal 
indispensable. 

He  was  invited  to  Brooklyn  to  take  charge  of  a 
new  enterprise.  Plymouth  Church  was  founded  by 
some  fifteen  or  twenty  gentlemen  as  a  new  Congrega- 
tional Church. 

Mr.  Beecher  was  to  be  installed  there  and  had  to 
pass  an  examination  before  Eastern  theologians.  He 
had  been,  as  has  been  shown,  not  a  bit  of  a  controver- 
sialist, and  he  had  been  so  busy  preaching  Christ,  and 
trying  to  save  sinners,  that  he  was  rather  rusty  in  all 
the  little  ins  and  outs  of  New  England  theology.  On 
many  points  he  was  forced  to  answer  "  I  do  not  know," 
and  sometimes  his  answer  had  a  whimsical  turn  that 
drew  a  smile. 

"  Do  you  believe  in  the  Perseverance  of  the  Saints?" 
said  good  Dr.  Humphrey,  his  college  father,  who 
thought  his  son  was  not  doing  himself  much  credit  in 
the  theological  line,  and  hoped  to  put  a  question  where 
he  could  not  fail  to  answer  right. 

"I  was  brought  up  to  believe  that  doctrine,"  said 
Mr.  Beecher,  "  and  I  did  believe  it  till  I  went  out  West 
and  saw  how  Eastern  Christians  lived  when  they  went 
out  there.    I  confess  since  then  I  have  had  my  doubts." 

On  the  whole,  as  Mr.  Beecher's  record  was  clear  from 
the  testimony  of  Western  brothers,  with  whom  he  had 


554  HENRY    WARD    BEE CHER. 

been  iu  labors  more  abundant,  it  was  tliought  not  on 
the  whole  dangerous  to  let  him  into  the  eastern  sheep- 
fold. 

Mr.  Beecher  immediately  announced  in  Plymouth 
Pulpit  the  same  principles  that  he  had  in  Indianapolis; 
namely,  his  determination  to  preach  Christ  among  them 
not  as  an  absolute  system  of  doctrines,  not  as  a  by- 
gone historical  personage,  but  as  the  living  Lord  and 
God,  and  to  bring  all  the  ways  and  usages  of  society 
to  the  test  of  his  standards.  He  announced  to  all 
whom  it  might  concern,  that  he  considered  temperance 
and  anti-slavery  a  part  of  the  gospel  pf  Christ,  and 
should  preach  them  accordingly. 

During  the  battle  inaugurated  by  Mr.  Webster's 
speech  of  the  7th  of  March,  and  the  fugitive  slave 
law,  Mr.  Beecher  labored  with  his  whole  soul. 

There  was,  as  people  will  remember,  a  great  Union 
Saving  Committee  at  Castle  Garden,  New  York,  and 
black  lists  were  made  out  of  merchants,  who,  if  they 
did  not  give  up  their  principles,  were  to  be  crushed 
financially,  and  many  were  afraid.  Mr,  Beecher 
preached,  and  visited  from  store  to  store,  holding  up 
the  courage  of  his  people  to  resistance.  The  adver- 
tisement of  Bowen  &  McNamee  that  they  would  "sell 
their  silks  but  not  their  principles,"  went  all  through 
the  country,  and  as  every  heroic  sentiment  does, 
brought  back  an  instant  response. 

At  this  time  Mr.  Beecher  garried  this  subject  through 
New  England  and  New  York,  in  Lyceum  lectures,  and 
began  a  course  of  articles  in  the  Independent,  under 
the  star  signature,  which  were  widely  read.  It  is  said 
that  when  Calhoun  was  in  his  last  illness,  his  secretary 


PLYMOUTH  CHURCH  PREACHING.        555 

was  reading  Mm  extracts  from  Northern  papers,  and 
among  others,  one  of  Mr.  Beecher's,  entitled  "Shall  we 
compromise  ? "  in  which  he  fully  set  forth  the  utter 
impossibility  of  reconciling  the  two  conflicting  powers 
of  freedom  and  slavery. 

"  Read  that  again  !  "  said  the  old  statesman,  his  eye 
lighting  up.  "  That  fellow  understands  his  subject;  he 
has  gone  to  the  bottom  of  it."  Calhoun  as  well  as 
Garrison  understood  the  utter  impossibility  of  uniting 
in  one  nation  two  states  of  society  founded  on  exactly 
opposite  social  principles. 

Through  all  the  warfare  of  principles,  Plymouth 
Church  steadily  grew  larger.  It  was  an  enterprise 
dependent  for  support  entirely  on  the  sale  of  the  seats, 
and  Mr.  Beecher  was  particularly  solicitous  to  make  it 
understood  that  the  buying  of  a  seat  in  Plymouth 
Church  would  necessitate  the  holder  to  hear  the  gos- 
pel of  Christ  unflinchingly  applied  to  the  practical 
issues  of  the  present  hour.  Always,  as  the  year  came 
round,  when  the  renting  of  the  pews  approached,  Mr. 
Beecher  took  occasion  to  preach  a  sermon  in  which  he 
swept  the  whole  field  of  modern  reform  with  particu- 
lar reference  to  every  disputed  and  unpopular  doc- 
trine, and  warned  all  who  were  thinking  of  taking  their 
seats  what  they  must  expect  for  the  coming  year. 

When  the  battle  of  the  settlement  of  Kansas  was 
going  on,  and  the  East  was  sending  forth  her  colonies 
as  lambs  among  wolves,  Mr.  Beecher  fearlessly  advo- 
cated the  necessity  of  theii'  going  out  armed,  and  a 
subscription  was  raised  in  Plymouth  Church  to  sup- 
ply every  family  with  a  Bible  and  a  rifle.  A  great 
commotion  was  then  raised  and  the  inconsistency  of 


556  HENRY   WARD   BEECHER. 

such  a  gift  from  a  professedly  Cliristian  cliiircli  was 
much  insisted  on.  Since  then,  more  than  one  church 
in  New  England  has  fitted  out  soldiers  and  prepared 
munitions  of  war,  and  more  than  one  clergyman  has 
preached  warlike  sermons.  The  great  battle  had  even 
then  begun  in  Kansas.  John  Brown  was  our  first 
great  commander,  who  fought  single  handed  for  his 
country^  when  traitors  held  Washington  and  used  the 
United  States  army  only  as  a  means  to  crush  and 
persecute  her  free  citizens  and  help  on  the  slavery  con- 
spiracy. During  the  war  Mr.  Beecher's  labors  were 
incessant.  Plymouth  Church  took  the  charge  of  rais- 
ing and  equipping  one  regiment,  the  First  Long  Island, 
and  many  of  its  young  men  went  out  in  it.  Mr, 
Beecher  often  visited  their  camp  during  the  time  of 
their  organization  and  preached  to  them.  His  eldest 
son  was  an  ofi&cer  in  it,  and  was  afterwards  transferred 
from  it  to  the  artillery  service  of  the  regular  army. 

At  this  time  Mr.  Beecher  took  the  editorship  of 
the  Independent,  a  paper  in  which  he  had  long  been 
a  contributor.  He  wished  this  chance  to  speak  from 
time  to  time  his  views  and  opinions  to  the  whole  coun- 
try. He  was  in  constant  communication  with  Wash- 
ington and  intimate  with  the  Secretary  of  War,  in 
whose  patriotism,  sagacity  and  wonderful  efficiency  he 
had  the  greatest  reliance. 

The  burden  of  the  war  upon  his  spirit,  his  multi- 
plied labors  in  writing,  speaking,  editorship,  and 
above  all  in  caring  for  his  country,  bore  down  his 
health.  His  voice  began  to  fail,  and  he  went  to  Europe 
for  a  temporary  respite.  On  his  arrival  he  was  met 
on  the  steamer  by  parties  who  wished  to  make  arrange- 


VISIT    TO    ENGLAND.  557 

ments  for  Ms  speaking  in  England.  He  told  them 
that  he  had  come  with  no  such  intention,  but  wholly 
for  purposes  of  relaxation,  and  that  he  must  entirely 
decline  speaking  in  England. 

In  a  private  letter  to  his  sister  at  this  time,  he  said, 
"  This  contest  is  neither  more  nor  less  than  the  con- 
flict between  democratic  and  aristocratic  institutions, 
in  which  success  to  one  must  be  defeat  to  the  other. 
The  aristocratic  party  in  England,  see  this  plainly 
enough,  and  I  do  not  propose  to  endeavor  to  pull  the 
wool  over  their  eyes.  I  do  not  expect  sympathy  from 
them.  No  order  yet  ever  had  any  sympathy  with  what 
must  prove  their  own  downfall.  We  have  got  to  set- 
tle this  question  hy  our  armies  and  the  opinions  of 
mankind  will  follow." 

He  spent  but  a  short  time  in  England,  enjoying  the 
hospitality  of  an  American  friend  and  former  parish- 
ioner, Mr.  C.  C.  Duncan.  After  a  fortnight  spent  in 
Wales,  he  went  into  Switzerland  through  Northern 
Italy  and  Germany. 

Mr.  Beecher  always  had  side  tracks  to  his  mind,  on 
which  his  thoughts  and  interests  ran  in  the  intervals 
of  graver  duties.  When  he  came  to  the  life  of  a  city, 
and  left  his  beloved  garden  and  the  blooming  prairies 
of  the  West  behind,  he  began  the  study  of  the  arts  as 
a  recreation,  and  prosecuted  it,  as  he  did  every  thing 
else,  with  that  enthusiasm  which  is  the  parent  of  indus- 
try. He  bought  for  himself  quite  an  art  library,  con- 
sisting of  all  the  standard  English  works  on  the  sub- 
ject, and  while  up  and  down  the  country  on  his  anti- 
slavery  lyceum  crusade,  usually  traveled  with  some  of 
these  works  in  his  pocket,  and  read  them  in  the  cars. 


558  HENRY   WARD    BEECHER. 

He  also  made  collections  of  pictures  and  choice  engrav- 
ino^s,  with  all  the  ardor  with  which  before  he  collected 
specimen  roses.  At  intervals  he  had  lectured  on  these 
subjects.  His  lecture  on  the  Uses  of  the  Beautiful, 
was  much  called  for  throughout  the  country.  He  was 
therefore  in  training  to  enjoy  the  art  treasures  of 
Europe. 

He  had  a  period  of  great  enjoyment  at  Berlin,  where, 
in  the  Berlin  Museum,  under  the  instructionsof  Waagen 
the  director  of  arts,  he  examined  that  historical  col- 
lection, said  to  be  the  richest  and  most  scientifically 
arranged  series  to  mark  the  history  of  art  which  can 
be  found  in  Europe.  The  scenery  of  Switzerland  and 
the  art  galleries  of  Northern  Italy  also  helped  to  re- 
fresh his  mind  and  divert  him  from  the  great  national 
afiliction  that  weighed  on  his  S2:)irit. 

At  Paris,  he  met  the  news  of  the  battle  of  Gettys- 
burg and  the  taking  of  Yicksburg,  and  recognized  in 
them  the  only  style  of  argument  which  could  carry 
the  cause  through  Europe.  Grant  was  a  logician  after 
his  own  heart. 

Mr.  Beecher,  on  his  return  to  England,  was  again 
solicited  to  speak  in  public,  and  again  declined.  So 
immutable  was  his  idea  that  this  was  a  battle  that 
Americans  must  fight  out,  and  which  could  not  be 
talked  out. 

He  was  at  last,  however,  made  to  see  his  duty  to 
that  small  staunch  liberal  party  who  had  been  main- 
taining the  cause  of  America  against  heavy  odds  in 
England,  and  he  felt  that  if  they  wished  him  to  speak, 
he  owed  himself  to  them ;  that  they  were  brave 
defenders  hard  beset ;  and  that  their  cause  and  ours 


SPEECHES  IN  ENGLAND.  559 

was  one.  SucH  men  as  Baptist  Noel,  Newman  Hall, 
Francis  Newman  and  others  of  that  class,  were  appli- 
cants not  to  be  resisted. 

He  therefore  prepared  himself  for  what  he  always 
has  felt  to  have  been  the  greatest  effort  and  severest 
labor  of  his  life,  to  plead  the  cause  of  his  country  at 
the  bar  of  the  civilized  world.  A  series  of  eno-agements 
was  formed  for  him  to  speak  in  the  principal  cities  of 
England  and  Scotland. 

He  opened  Friday,  October  9th,  in  the  Free  Trade 
Hall,  in  Manchester,  to  a  crowded  audience  of  6,000 
people.  The  emissaries  of  the  South  had  made  every 
preparation  to  excite  popular  tumult,  to  drown  his 
voice  and  prevent  his  being  heard.  Here  he  treated 
the  subject  on  its  merits,  as  being  the  great  question 
of  the  rights  of  working  men,  and  brought  out  and 
exposed  the  nature  of  the  Southern  confederacy  as 
founded  in  the  right  of  the  superior  to  oppress  the 
inferior  race.  Notwithstanding  the  roar  and  fury  and 
interruptions  he  persevered  and  said  his  say,  and 
the  London  Times  next  day,  printed  it  all  with  a 
column  or  two  of  abuse  by  way  of  condiment. 

October  13th,  he  spoke  in  the  city  hall  at  Glasgow, 
discussing  slavery  and  free  labor  as  comparative  sys- 
tems. The  next  day,  October  14th,  he  spoke  in  Edin- 
burgh in  a  great  public  meeting  in  the  Free  Church 
Assembly  Hall,  where  he  discussed  the  existing  Amer- 
ican conflict  from  the  historical  point  of  view. 

This  was  by  far  the  most  quiet  and  uninterrupted 
meeting  of  any.  But  the  greatest  struggle  of  all  was 
of  course  at  Liverpool.  At  Liverpool,  where  Clark- 
son  was  mobbed,  and  came  near  being  thrown  off  the 


560  HENRY    WARD    BEECHER. 

wharf  and  drowned,  there  was  still  an  abundance  of 
that  brutal  noisy  population  which  slavery  always  finds 
it  useful  to  stir  up  to  bay  and  bark  when  she  is 
attacked. 

Mr.  Beecher  has  a  firmly  knit  vigorous  physical  frame, 
come  down  from  back  generations  of  yeomen,  re- 
nowned for  strength,  and  it  stood  him  in  good  service 
now.  In  giving  an  account  afterwards,  he  said,  "  I 
had  to  speak  extempore  on  subjects  the  most  delicate 
and  difiicult  as  between  our  two  nations,  where  even  the 
shading  of  my  words  was  of  importance,  and  yet  I 
had  to  outscream  a  mob  and  drown  the  roar  of  a  mul- 
titude. It  was  like  driving  a  team  of  runaway  horses 
and  making  love  to  a  lady  at  the  same  time." 

The  printed  record  of  this  speech,  as  it  came  from 
England,  has  constant  parentheses  of  wild  uproars, 
hootings,  howls,  cat  calls,  clamorous  denials  and  inter- 
ruptions; but  by  cheerfulness,  perfect  fearless  good 
humor,  intense  perseverance,  and  a  powerful  voice, 
Mr.  Beecher  said  all  he  had  to  say  in  spite  of  the  up- 
roar. 

Two  letters,  written  about  this  time,  show  the  state 
of  his  mind  during  this  emergency : 

Sunday,  Oct.  18,  1863.  London, 

My  Dear  Friend: 

You  know  why  I  have  not  written  you  from 
England.  I  have  been  so  full  of  work  that  I  could 
not.  God  has  been  with  me  and  prospered  me.  I 
have  had  health,  and  strength,  and  courage,  and  what 
is  of  unspeakably  more  importance,  I  have  had  the 
sweetest  experience  of  love  to  God  and  to  man,  of  all 
my  life.     I  have  been  enabled  to  love  our  enemies, 


LETTERS    FROM    ENGLAND.  561 

All  the  needless  ignorance,  the  party  perversions,  the 
wilful  misrepresentations  of  many  newspapers,  the 
arrogance  and  obstinacy  too  often  experienced,  and 
yet  more  the  coolness  of  brethren  of  our  faith  and 
order,  and  the  poisoned  prejudices  that  have  been 
arrayed  against  me  by  the  propagation  of  untruths  or 
distorted  reports,  have  not  prevented  my  having  a 
love  for  old  England,  an  appreciation  of  the  good  that 
is  here,  and  a  hearty  desire  for  her  whole  welfare. 
This  I  count  a  great  blessing.  God  awakened  in 
my  breast  a  desire  to  be  a  full  and  true  Christian 
towards  England,  the  moment  I  put  my  foot  on  her 
shores,  and  he  has  answered  the  prayers  which  he  in- 
spired. I  have  spoken  at  Manchester,  Glasgow,  Edin- 
burgh, and  Liverpool,  and  am  now  in  London,  prepar- 
ing for  Exeter  Hall,  Tuesday  next.  I  have  been 
buoyant  and  happy.  The  streets  of  Manchester  and 
Liverpool  have  been  filled  with  placards,  in  black  and 
white  letters,  full  of  all  lies  and  bitterness,  but  they 
have  seemed  to  me  only  the  tracery  of  dreams.  For 
hours  I  have  striven  to  speak  amid  interruptions  of 
every  kind — yellings,  hootings,  cat  calls,  derisive  yells, 
impertinent  and  insulting  questions,  and  every  con- 
ceivable annoyance — some  personal  violence.  But 
God  has  kept  me  in  perfect  peace.  I  stood  in  Liver- 
pool and  looked  on  the  demoniac  scene,  almost  with- 
out a  thought  that  it  was  me  that  was  present.  It 
seemed  rather  like  a  storm  raging  in  the  trees  of  the 
forests,  that  roared  and  impeded  my  progress,  but  yet 
had  matters  personal  or  wilful  in  it,  against  me.  You 
know,  dear  friend,  how,  when  we  are  lifted  by  the 
inspiration  of  a  great  subject,  and  by  the  almost  visi- 


562  HENRY   WARD    BEECHER. 

ble  presence  and  vivid  sympathy  with  Christ,  the  mind 
forgets  the  sediment  and  dregs  of  trouble,  and  sails 
serenely  in  an  upper  realm  of  peace,  as  untouched  by 
the  noise  below,  as  is  a  bird  that  flies  across  a  battle- 
field. Just  so  I  had  at  Liverpool  and  Glasgow,  as 
sweet  an  inward  peace  as  ever  I  did  in  the  loving 
meetings  of  dear  old  Plymouth  Church.  And  again 
and  again,  when  the  uproar  raged,  and  I  could  not 
speak,  my  heart  seemed  to  be  taking  of  the  infinite 
fullness  of  the  Saviour's  pity,  and  breathing  it  out  upon 
those  poor,  troubled  men.  I  never  had  so  much  the 
spirit  of  continuing  and  unconscious  prayer,  or  rather, 
of  communion  with  Christ.  I  felt  that  1  was  his  dear 
child,  and  that  his  arms  were  about  me  continually, 
and  at  times  that  peace  that  passeth  all  understanding 
has  descended  upon  me  that  I  could  not  keep  tears  of 
gratitude  from  falling  for  so  much  tender  goodness  of 
my  God.  For  what  are  outward  prosperities  com- 
pared with  these  interior  intimacies  of  God  ?  It  is 
not  the  path  to  the  temple,  but  the  interior  of  the 
temple  that  shows  the  goodness  and  glory  of  God. 
And  I  have  been  able  to  commit  all  to  him,  myself, 
my  family,  my  friends,  and  in  an  especial  manner  the 
cause  of  my  country.  Oh,  my  friend,  I  have  felt  an 
inexpressible  wonder  that  God  should  give  it  to  me  to 
do  something  for  the  dear  land.  When  sometimes  the 
idea  of  being  clothed  with  power  to  stand  up  in  this 
great  kingdom,  against  an  inconceivable  violence  of 
prejudice  and  mistake,  and  clear  the  name  of  my  dis- 
honored country,  and  let  her  brow  shine  forth,  crown- 
ed with  liberty,  glowing  with  love  to  man,  0,  I  have 


CHRISTIAN   VIEW    OF    ENGLAND.  563 

seemed  unable  to  live,  almost.     It  almost  took  my 
breath  away ! 

"  I  have  not  in  a  single  instance  gone  to  the  speaking 
halls  without  all  the  way  breathing  to  God  unutterable 
desires  for  inspiration,  guidance,  success ;  and  I  have 
had  no  disturbance  of  personality.  I  have  been  wil- 
ling, yea,  with  eagerness,  to  be  myself  contemptible 
in  men's  sight  if  only  my  disgrace  might  be  to  the 
honor  of  that  cause  which  is  entrusted  to  our  own 
thrice  dear  country,  I  have  asked  of  God  nothing 
but  this — and  this  with  uninterrupted  heart-flow  of 
yearning  request — "Make  me  worthy  to  speak  for  God 
and  man."  I  never  felt  my  ignorance  so  painfully, 
nor  the  great  w^ant  of  moral  purity  and  noljility  of 
soul,  as  when  approaching  my  tasks  of  defending  lib- 
erty in  this  her  hour  of  trial.  I  have  an  ideal  of  what 
a  man  should  be  that  labors  for  such  a  cause,  that 
constantly  rebukes  my  real  condition,  and  makes  me 
feel  painfully  how  little  I  am.  Yet  that  is  hardly 
painful.  There  passes  before  me  a  view  of  God's 
glory,  so  pure,  so  serene,  uplifted,  filling  the  ages,  and 
more  and  more  to  be  revealed,  that  I  almost  wish  to 
lose  my  own  identity,  to  be  like  a  drop  of  dew  that 
falls  into  the  sea,  and  becomes  a  part  of  the  sublime 
whole  that  glows  under  every  line  of  latitude,  and 
sounds  on  every  shore  !  '■That  God  may  he  all  in  all^ 
— that  is  not  a  prayer  only,  but  a  personal  experience. 
And  in  all  this  time  I  have  not  had  one  unkind  feeling 
toward  a  single  human  being.  Even  those  who  are 
opposers,  I  have  pitied  with  undying  compassion,  and 
enemies  around  me  have  seemed  harmless,  and  objects 
of  charity  rather  than  potent  foes  to  be  destroyed. 


564  HENRY    WARD   BEECHER.     ' 

God  be  thanked,  who  giveth  us  the  victory  through 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

"My  dear  friend,  when  I  sat  down  to  write,  I  did  it 
under  this  im^Dulse — that  I  wanted  somebody  to  know 
the  secret  of  my  life.  I  am  in  a  noisy  spectacle,  and 
seem  to  thousands  as  one  employing  merely  worldly 
implements,  and  acting  under  secular  motives.  But 
should  I  die,  on  sea  or  land,  I  wanted  to  say  to  you, 
who  have  been  so  near  and  dear  to  me,  that  as  God's 
own-  very  truth,  '  the  life  that  I  have  lived  in  the  flesh, 
I  have  lived  by  faith  of  the  Son  of  God.'  I  wanted 
to  leave  it  with  some  one  to  say  for  me  that  it  was  not 
in  natural  gifts,  nor  in  great  opportunities,  nor  in  per- 
sonal ambition,  that  I  have  been  able  to  endure  and 
labor,  but  that  the  secret  and  spring  of  my  outward 
life  has  been  an  inward,  complete,  and  all-possessing 
faith  of  God's  truth,  and  God's  own  self  working  in 
me  to  will  and  to  do  of  his  own  good  pleasure ! 

"  There,  now  I  feel  better ! 

"Monday,  19th.  I  do  not  know  as  you  will  under- 
stand the  feeling  which  led  to  the  above  outburst.  I 
had  spoken  four  times  in  seven  days  to  immense  audi- 
ences, under  great  excitement,  and  with  every  effort 
of  Southern  sympathizers,  the  newspapers,  street  pla- 
cards, and  in  every  other  way  to  prevent  my  being 
heard.  I  thought  I  had  been  through  furnaces  be- 
fore, but  this  ordeal  surpassed  all  others.  I  was  quite 
alone  in  England.  I  had  no  one  to  consult  with.  I 
felt  the  burden  of  having  to  stand  for  my  country,  in 
a  half  hostile  land ;  and  yet  I  never  flinched  for  a  mo- 
ment, nor  lost  heart.  But  after  resting  twenty  weeks, 
to  begin  so  suddenly  such  a  tremendous  strain  upon 


THE    EXETER   HALL    SPEECH.  565 

my  voice,  lias  very  much  affected  it.  To-day  I  am 
somewliat  fearful  I  shall  be  unable  to  speak  to-morrow 
night  in  Exeter  Hall.  I  want  to  speak  there,  if  the 
Lord  will  only  let  me.  I  shall  be  willing  to  give  up 
all  the  other  openings  in  the  kingdom.  I  cannot  stop 
to  give  you  any  sort  of  insight  into  affairs  here.  One 
more  good  victory,  and  England  will  be  immovable. 
The  best  thinkers  of  England  will  be  at  any  rate. 

"I  hope  my  people  will  feel  that  I  have  done  my 
duty.  I  know  that  I  have  tried.  I  should  be  glad  to 
feel  that  my  countrymen  approved,  but  above  all 
others  I  should  prize  the  knowledge  that  the  people 
of  Plymouth  Church  were  satisfied  with  me. 

"I  am  as  ever,  yours, 

H.  W.  Beecher." 

"Oct.  21,  1863.     London. 

"My  Dear  Friend: 

Last  night  was  the  culmination  of  my  labor,  in 
Exeter  Hall.  It  was  a  very  fit  close  to  a  series  of 
meetings  that  have  produced  a  great  sensation  in 
England.  Even  an  American  would  be  impressed 
with  the  enthusiasm  of  so  much  of  England  as  the 
people  of  last  night  represented  for  the  North.  It 
was  more  than  willing,  than  hearty,  than  even  eager, 
it  was  almost  wild  and  fanatical.  I  was  like  to  have 
been  killed  with  people  pressing  to  shake  my  hand ; 
men,  women,  and  children  crowded  up  the  platform, 
and  ten  and  twenty  hands  held  over  and  stuck  through 
like  so  many  pronged  spears.  I  was  shaken,  pinched, 
squeezed,  in  every  way  an  affectionate  enthusiasm 
could  devise,  until   the  police  actually  came  to  my 


566  HENRY   WARD   BEECHER. 

rescue,  and  forced  a  way,  and  dragged  me  down  into 
the  retiring  room,  where  a  like  scene  began,  from 
which  an  inner  room  gave  me  refuge,  but  no  relief,  for 
only  with  more  deliberation,  the  gentlemen  brought 
wives,  daughters,  sons,  and  selves  for  a  God  bless 
you !  And  when  Englishmen  that  had  lived  in  Amer- 
ica, or  had  sons  in  our  army,  or  had  married  American 
wives,  took  me  to  witness  their  devotion  to  our  cause, 
the  chairman  of  the  meeting,  Mr.  Scott,  the  Chamber- 
lain of  London,  said  that  a  few  more  meetings,  and  in 
some  other  parts  of  England,  and  the  question  would 
be  settled !  You  will  have  sent  to  you  abundant  ac- 
counts, I  presume. 

"Lastly;  England  will  be  enthusiastically  right, 
provided  we  hold  on,  and  gai7i  victories.  But  Eng- 
land has  an  intense  and  yearning  sense  of  the  value 
of  success. 

"Yours,  ever  lovingly." 

Mr.  Beecher  returned  from  England  much  exhausted 
by  the  effort.  All  the  strength  that  he  had  accumu- 
lated he  poured  out  in  that  battle. 

Events  after  that  swept  on  rapidly,  and  not  long 
after  Mr.  Beecher,  in  company  with  Lloyd  Garrison, 
and  a  great  party  of  others,  went  down  to  Fort  Sum- 
ter to  raise  again  the  national  flag,  when  Richmond 
had  fallen,  and  the  conflict  was  over.  During  his  stay 
at  the  South,  he  had  some  exciting  experiences.  One 
of  the  most  touching  was  his  preaching  in  one  of  the 
largest  churches  in  South  Carolina  to  a  great  congre- 
gation of  liberated  slaves.  The  sermon,  which  is  in  a 
recently  printed  volume  of  sermons,  is  full  of  emo- 
tion and  records  of  thankfulness. 


PREACHES  AN   UNPOPULAR   FORGIVENESS.  567 

Returning,  he  was  met  by  the  news  of  the  Presi- 
dent's death,  at  which,  like  all  the  land,  he  bowed  as 
a  mourner.  Not  long  after,  he  felt  it  his  duty  to  strike 
another  key  in  his  church.  The  war  was  over,  the 
victory  won.  Mr.  Beecher  came  out  with  a  sermon 
on  forgiveness  of  injuries,  expounding  the  present 
crisis  as  a  great  and  rare  opportunity. 

The  sermon  was  not  a  popular  one.  The  commu- 
nity could  not  at  once  change  the  attitude  of  war  for 
that  of  peace ;  there  were  heart-burnings  that  could 
not  at  once  be  assuaged.  But  whatever  may  be 
thought  of  Mr.  Beecher's  opinions  in  the  matter  of 
political  policy,  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  immediate 
and  strong  impulse  to  forgive^  which  came  to  him  at 
once  when  his  party  was  triumphant,  was  from  that 
source  in  his  higher  nature  whence  have  come  all  the 
best  inspirations  of  his  life. 

Mr.  Beecher's  views,  hopes,  wishes,  and  the  policy 
he  would  have  wished  to  have  pursued,  were  very 
similar  to  those  of  Governor  Andrew,  and  the  more 
moderate  of  the  republicans,  and  he  did  not  hesitate 
at  once  to  imperil  his  popularity  with  his  own  party, 
by  the  free  expression  of  his  opinions.  Those  who 
have  been  most  offended  by  him  cannot  but  feel  that 
the  man  who  defied  the  slaveholder  when  he  was  rich, 
haughty  and  powerful,  had  a  right  to  speak  a  kind 
word  for  him  now  when  he  is  poor,  and  weak,  and 
defeated.  The  instinct  to  defend  the  weaker  side  is 
strongest  in  generous  natures. 

Mr.  Beecher  has  met  and  borne  the  criticisms  of  his 

own  party  with  that  tolerance  and  equanimity  with 

which  he  once  bore  rebuke  for  defending  the  cause  of 
35 


568  HENRY   WARD    BEECHER. 

the  slave.  In  all  the  objects  sought  by  the  most 
radical  republicans,  he  is  a  firm  believer.  He  holds 
to  the  equal  political  rights  of  every  human  being- 
men  and  women,  the  white  man  and  the  negro.  He 
hopes  to  see  this  result  yet  established  in  the  Union, 
and  if  it  be  attained  by  means  different  from  those  he 
counseled,  still  if  it  he  attained,  he  will  sincerely 
rejoice. 

Though  Mr.  Beecher  has  from  time  to  time  entered 
largely  into  politics,  yet  he  has  always  contemplated 
them  from  the  moral  and  ministerial  stand-point.  His 
public  and  political  labors,  though  they  have  been 
widely  known,  are  mere  offshoots  from  his  steady  and 
habitual  pastoral  work  in  his  own  parish. 

Plymouth  Church  is  to  a  considerable  degree  a  real- 
ization externally  of  Mr.  Beecher's  ideal  of  what  a  prot- 
estant  church  ought  to  be — a  congregation  of  faithful 
men  and  women,  bound  together  by  a  mutual  covenant 
of  Christian  love,  to  apply  the  principles  of  Christianity 
to  society.  It  has  always  been  jper  se,  a  temperance  and 
an  anti-slavery  society.  The  large  revenue  raised  by 
the  yearly  sale  of  pews,  has  come  in  time  to  afford  a 
generous  yearly  income.  This  year  it  amounts  to  fifty 
thousand  dollars.  This  revenue  has,  besides  the  pas- 
tor's salary  and  current  expenses,  been  appropriated 
to  extinguishing  the  debt  upon  the  church,  which 
being  at  last  done,  the  church  will  devote  its  surplus 
to  missionary  operations  in  its  vicinity.  Two  missions 
have  been  largely  supported  by  the  funds  derived 
from  Plymouth  Church,  and  the  time  and  personal 
labors  of  its  members.  A  mechanics'  reading-room 
is  connected  with  one  of  these.     No  church  in  the 


PLYMOUTH  CHURCH  PRAYER-MEETING.      569 

country  furnislies  a  larger  body  of  lay  teachers,  ex- 
horters,  and  missionaries  in  every  department  of  human 
and  Christian  labor.  A  large-minded,  tolerant,  genial 
spirit,  a  cheerful  and  buoyant  style  of  piety,  is  char- 
acteristic of  the  men  and  women  to  whose  support 
and  efficient  aid  in  religious  works,  ]VIr.  Beecher  is 
largely  indebted  for  his  success. 

The  weekly  prayer-meeting  of  the  church  is  like 
the  reunion  of  a  large  family.  The  pastor,  seated  in 
the  midst,  seems  only  as  an  elder  brother.  The  vari- 
ous practical  questions  of  Christian  morals  are  freely 
discussed,  and  every  member  is  invited  to  express  an 
opinion. 

In  one  of  these  meetings,  Mr.  Beecher  gave  an  au- 
tobiographical account  of  the  growth  of  his  own 
mind  in  religious  feeling  and  opinion,  which  was  taken 
down  by  a  reporter.  We  shall  give  it  as  the  fitting 
close  of  this  sketch. 

"If  there  is  any  one  thing  in  which  I  feel  that  my 
own  Christian  experience  has  developed  more  than  in 
another,  I  think  it  is  the  all-sided  use  of  the  love  and 
worship  which  I  have  toward  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 
Every  man's  mind,  that  acts  for  itself,  has  to  go 
through  its  periods  of  development  and  evolution. 
In  the  earlier  part  of  my  Christian  career  and  minis- 
try, I  had  but  glimpses  of  Christ,  and  was  eagerly 
seeking  to  develop  in  my  own  mind,  and  for  my  peo- 
ple, a  full  view  of  his  character,  particularly  with  ref- 
erence to  the  conversion  of  men ;  to  start  them,  in 
other  words,  in  the  Christian  life.  And  for  a  great 
many  years  I  think  it  was  Christ  as  the  wisdom  of 
God  unto  salvation  that  filled  my  mind  very  much ; 


570  HENRY   WARD   BEECHER. 

and  I  preached  Clirist  as  a  jpower^  not  at  all  too  much, 
perhaps,  but  almost  exclusively. 

"Well,  I  think  there  has  been  going  on  in  me, 
steadily  and  gradually,  a  growing  appropriation  of 
Christ  to  all  needs;  to  every  side  and  phase  of  expe- 
rience ;  so  that  at  no  period  of  my  life  was  I  ever  so 
conscious  of  a  personal  need,  so  definite,  and  at  so 
many  points  of  my  nature,  as  now.  I  do  not  know 
that  I  experience  such  enthusiasm  as  I  have  at  some 
former  periods  of  my  life;  but  I  think  that  at  no 
other  period  did  I  ever  have  such  a  sense  of  the  ful- 
ness of  God  in  Christ,  or  such  a  sense  of  the  special 
point  at  which  this  divine  all-supply  touches  the  hu- 
man want. 

"A  few  points  I  will  mention,  that  are  much  in  my 
mind. 

"The  love  of  Christ,  as  I  recollect  it  in  my  child- 
hood, was  taught  almost  entirely  from  the  work  of 
redemption.  That  work  of  redemption  was  itself  a 
historical  fact,  and  it  was  sought  to  stir  up  the  heart 
and  the  affections  by  a  continual  review  and  iteration 
of  the  great  facts  of  Christ's  earthly  mission,  passion, 
atonement  and  love.  I  became  conscious,  very  early 
in  my  ministry,  that  I  did  not  derive — nor  could  I  see 
that  Christians  generally  derived — from  the  mere  con- 
tinued presentation  of  that  circle  of  facts,  a  perpetual 
help,  to  anything  like  the  extent  that  life  needs. 
There  would  come  to  me,  as  there  come  to  the  church, 
times  in  which  all  these  facts  seemed  to  be  fused  and 
kindled,  and  to  afford  great  light  and  consolation; 
but  these  were  alternative  and  occasional,  whereas  the 
need  was  perpetual.     And  it  was  not  until  I  went  be- 


THE    DIVINE    LOVE.  571 

yond  these — not  disdaining  tliem,  but  using  them 
rather  as  a  torch,  as  a  means  of  interpreting  Christ  in 
a  hiofher  relation — that  I  entered  into  a  train  of 
thought  that  revealed  to  me  the  intrinsic  nature  of 
God.  I  had  an  idea  that  he  loved  me  on  account  of 
Calvary  and  Gethsemane,  on  account  of  certain  histor- 
ical facts ;  but  I  came,  little  by  little,  through  glimps- 
es and  occasional  appreciations,  to  that  which  is  now 
a  continuous,  unbroken  certainty,  namely,  a  sense  of 

the    EVERLASTING    NEED     OF     GOD,    IX    ChRIST,    TO    LOVE. 

I  began  to  interpret  the  meaning  of  love,  not  by  con- 
templating a  few  historical  facts,  but  by  running 
through  my  mind  human  faculties,  exalting  them,  and 
imagining  them  to  have  infinite  scope  in  the  divine 
mind.  I  began  to  apply  our  ideas  of  infinity  and 
almightiness  to  the  attributes  of  God,  and  to  form 
some  conception  of  what  affection  must  be  in  a 
Being  who  had  created,  who  had  sustained  in  the 
past,  and  who  was  to  sustain  throughout  the  endless 
future,  a  race  of  intelligent  creatures  such  as  peopled 
the  earth.  In  that  direction  my  mind  grew,  and  in 
that  direction  it  grows.  And  from  the  inward  and 
everlasting  nature  of  God  to  love,  I  have  derived 
the  greatest  stimulus,  the  greatest  consolation,  and  the 
greatest  comfort  in  preaching  to  others.  I  find  many 
persons  that  speak  of  loving  Christ ;  but  it  is  only 
now  and  then  that  I  meet  those  who  seem  to  be  pene- 
trated deeply  with  a  consciousness  of  Christ's  love 
TO  THEM,  or  of  its  boundlessucss,  its  wealth,  its  fine- 
ness, its  exceeding  delicacy,  its  transcendency  in  every 
line  and  lineament  of  possible  conception.  Once  in  a 
while,  people   have  this  view  break   upon   them  in 


572  HENRY   WARD   BEECHER. 

meeting,  or  in  some  sick  hour,  or  in  some  revival  mo- 
ment. That  is  a  blessed  visitation  which  brings  to 
the  soul  a  realization  of  the  capacity  of  God  to  love 
imperfect  beings  with  infinite  love,  and  which  enables 
a  man  to  adapt  this  truth  to  his  shame-hours,  his  sor- 
row-hours, his  love-hours  and  his  selfish  hours,  and  to 
find  all  the  time  that  there  is  in  the  revelation  of  the 
love  of  God  in  Christ  Jesus  all-sufiicient  food  for  the 
soul.  It  is,  indeed,  almost  to  have  the  gate  of  heaven 
opened  to  you.     The  treasure  is  inexhaustible. 

Out  of  that  has  grown  something  besides :  for  it  is 
impossible  for  me  to  feel  that  Christ  loves  me  with 
such  an  all-surrounding  love,  and  to  feel,  as  I  do  every 
day  of  my  life,  that  he  has  to  love  me  with  imper- 
fections, that  he  never  loves  me  because  I  am  symmet- 
rical, never  because  I  am  good,  never  because  I  de- 
serve his  love,  never  because  I  am  lovely,  but  always 
because  he  has  the  power  of  loving  erring  creatures — 
it  is  impossible  for  me  to  feel  thus,  and  not  get  some 
insight  into  divine  charity.  Being  conscious  that  he 
takes  me  with  all  my  faults,  I  cannot  but  believe  that 
he  takes  others  with  their  faults — Roman  Catholics, 
Swedenborgians,  Unitarians,  Universalists,  and  Chris- 
tians of  all  sects  and  denominations  ;  and  of  these,  not 
only  such  as  are  le-ist  exceptionable,  but  such  as  are 
narrow-minded,  such  as  are  bigoted,  such  as  are  pug- 
nacious, such  as  are  unlovely.  I  believe  that  Christ 
finds  much  in  them  that  he  loves,  but  whether  he  finds 
much  in  them  that  he  loves  or  not,  he  finds  much  in 
himself  of  capacitij  to  love  them.  And  so  I  have  the 
feeling  that  in  all  churches,  in  all  denominations,  there 


OWNING   ALL   CHRISTIANS.  573 

is  an  elect,  and  Christ  sees  of  the  travail  of  his  soul, 
and  is  satisfied. 

That  is  not  all.  Aside  from  this  catholicity  of  love  of 
Christians  in  all  sects  and  denominations,  I  have  a 
sense  of  ownership  in  other  people.  It  may  seem 
rather  fanciful,  but  it  has  been  a  source  of  abiding 
comfort  to  me  for  many  years,  that  I  owned  everybody 
that  was  good  for  anything  in  life. 

I  came  here,  you  know,  under  peculiar  circum- 
stances. I  came  just  at  the  critical  period  of  the  anti- 
slavery  movement ;  and  I  came  without  such  endorse- 
ment as  is  usually  considered  necessary  in  city  church- 
es in  the  East.  Owing  to  those  independent  personal 
habits  that  belonged  to  me,  and  that  I  acquired  from 
my  Western  training,  I  never  consulted  brethren  in 
the  ministry  as  to  what  course  I  should  pursue,  but 
carried  on  my  work  as  fast  and  as  far  as  I  could  ac- 
cording to  the  enlightenment  of  my  conscience.  For 
years,  as  you  will  recollect,  it  excited  remark,  and 
various  states  of  feeling.  And  so,  I  felt,  always,  as 
though  I  was  not  particularly  acceptable  to  Christians 
beyond  my  own  flock,  with  the  exception  of  single 
individuals  here  and  there  in  other  churches.  But  I 
have  felt,  not  resentful,  and  hardly  regretful ;  for  I  have 
always  had  a  sort  of  minor  under-feeling,  that  when  I 
was  at  home  I  was  strong  and  all  right,  though  I  was 
conscious  that  outside  of  my  own  affectionate  con- 
gregation I  was  looked  upon  with  suspicion.  This 
acting  upon  a  nature  proud  enough,  and  sensitive 
enough,  has  wrought  a  kind  of  feeling  that  I  never 
would  intrude  upon  anybody,  and  never  would  ask 
any  favor  of  anybody — as  I  never  have  had  occasion 


574  HENRY   WARD   BEECHER. 

to  do  ;  and  I  stood  very  much  by  myself.  But  I  never 
felt  any  bitterness  towards  those  who  regarded  me  with 
disfavor.  And  I  speak  the  truth,  when  I  declare  that 
I  do  not  remember  to  have  had  towards  any  minister 
a  feeling  that  I  would  have  been  afraid  to  have  God 
review  in  the  judgment  day,  and  that  I  do  not  remem- 
ber to  have  had  towards  any  church  or  denomination 
a  feeling  that  Christ  would  not  approve.  On  the 
other  hand,  I  have  had  positively  and  springing  from 
my  sense  of  the  wonderful  love  with  which  I  am 
loved,  and  with  which  the  whole  church  is  loved,  the 
feeling  that  these  very  men  who  did  not  accept  me  or 
my  work,  were  beloved  of  Christ,  and  were  brethren 
to  me  ;  and  I  have  said  to  them  mentally,  "  I  am  your 
brother.  You  do  not  know  tt,  hut  I  aw,  and  fJwiigh 
you  do  not  own  me^  I  own  you.  All  that  is  good  in 
you  is  mine,  and  I  am  in  sympathy  with  it.  And  you 
cannot  keep  me  out  of  your  church."  I  belong  to 
the  Presbyterian  church.  I  belong  to  the  Methodist 
church.  I  belong  to  the  Baptist  church.  I  belong 
to  the  Episcopal  church.  I  belong  to  any  church  that 
has  Christ  in  it.  I  go  where  he  goes,  and  love  what 
he  loves.  And  I  insist  upon  it  that  though  those 
churches  exclude  me,  they  cannot  keep  me  out.  All 
those  I  have  reason  to  believe  Christ  loves,  I  claim  by 
virtue  of  the  love  that  Christ  has  for  me.  Hence,  I 
have  a  great  sense  of  richness.  I  rejoice  in  everything 
that  is  good  in  all  these  denominations,  and  sorrow 
for  everything  that  is  bad,  or  that  hinders  the  work 
of  Christ  in  their  hands.  And  I  look,  and  wait,  and 
long  for  that  day  when  all  Christians  shall  recognize 
each  other. 


THE    NIGHT    RIDE    OF    LIFE.  575 

I  tliink  that  people  in  tlie  church  are  like  persons 
riding  in  a  stage  at  night.  For  hours  they  sit  side  by 
side,  and  shoulder  to  shoulder,  not  being  able  in  the 
darkness  to  distinguish  one  another ;  but  at  last,  when 
day  breaks,  and  they  look  at  each  other,  behold,  they 
discover  that  they  are  friends  and  brothers. 

So  we  are  riding,  I  think,  through  the  night  of  this 
earthly  state,  and  do  not  know  that  we  are  brethren, 
though  we  sit  shoulder  to  shoulder ;  but  as  the  mil- 
lennial dawn  comes  on,  we  shall  find  it  out  and  all 
will  be  clear." 


THE    END. 


Agents   "Wanted  Everywhere  to  sell   IProfI  Stowe*® 

ORIGIN  AND  HISTORY  OF  THE 

'BOOKS  OF  THE  BIBLE, 

BOTH   THE 

CANONICAL  AND  THE  APOCRYPHAL, 
SHOWING  WHAT  THE  BIBLE  IS  NOT,  WHAT  IT  IS,  AP  HOW  TO  USE  IT. 

(NEW  TESTAMENT,) 

WITH  ILLUSTRATIONS. 

Br  PROF.  CALVIN  E.  STOWE,  D.  D., 

FOR  MORE  THAN   THIRTY  TEARS    BIBLICAL    PROFESSOR    AT    ANDOVER,  CINCINNATI, 

AND   OTHER  THEOLOGICAL    SEMINARIES,    AND    ACKNOWLEDGED 

TO   BE   ONE    OF   THE 

BEST  INFORMED  BIBLE  STUDENTS  OF  THE  AGE. 
THIS  WOKK  IS  OXE  OF  PATIENT  RESEARCH,  WLICEM  STUDY.  AND  RIPE  EXPERIENCE, 

BEING   IN    FACT 

THE  LIFE  WOEK  OF  THE  AUTHOR 

IT  TREATS  OF 

The  common  popular  objections  to  the  Bible  at  the  present  day. 

The  evidences  upon  which  we  receive  the  Saa-ed  Bools,  and  description  of  the 
Ancient  Manuscripts  of  the  New  Testament,   Avith  fac-simiie  illustrations. 

Brief  Biographies  of  One  Hundred  Ancient  Wit7i€s$es  to  the  New  Testament,  whose 
testimony  is  most  important,  much  of  it  cited  in  this  work. 

The  testimony  for  the  Historical  Books,  and  a  full  examination,  separately,  of  the 
four  Gospels. 

The  Apocryphal  Gospels,  and  fragments  of  Gospels  supposed  to  be  lost. 

Modern  substitutes  for  the  Gospel  History,  with  an  examination  of  the  works  of 
Strauss,  Weisse,  Gfroerer,  Bruno  Bauer,  F.  C.  Baur,  Eeiian  and  Schenckel,  intended 
to  meet  the  undermining  process  with  regard  to  the  authority  of  Scripture,  so  preva- 
lent at  the  present  day. 

Acts  of  the  Apostles,  the  Apocryphal  Acts,  and  the  fourteen  Epistles  of  Paul. 
The  Catholic  and  the  Apocryphal  Epistles.  Revelation  of  St.  John,  and  the  Apoc- 
ryphal Revelations. 

The  Bible  Prophets  and  the  Classical  Oracles,    contrasted. 

The  Apocryphal  Books  of  the  Old  Testament,  and  the  reason  for  their  exclusion 
from  the  Canon. 

It  is  a  work  of  real  value,  not  sectarian  at  all,  not  even  Theological,  but  is  just 
what  it  purports  to  be,  a  Hstory  of  the  Books  of  the  Bible,  sufficiently  critical  to 
meet  the  wants  of  the  Professor,  the  Clergyman  and  the  Student,  and  yet  so  simp- 
lified as  to  be  the  book  needed  by  every  Family  and  every  Sunday  School 
Teacher,  as  the  Companion  of  the  Bible. 

This  book  is  new  and  fresh  from  the  pen  of  the  author,  who  has  long  been  urged 
to  its  preparation  by  Presidents  of  Colleges,  and  leading  Ministers  and  Scholars  of 
the  various  Christian  denominations,  and  has  given  his  best  energies  to  its  com- 
pletion. 

It  contains  about  600  pages  Octavo,  printed  from  new  and  beautiful  clear  type, 
selected  expressly  for  this  work,  illustrated  with  a  fine  steel  portrait  of  the  Author, 
fac-similes  of  the  early  manuscripts  on  which  the  Bible  was  written,  very  curious 
and  interesting,  and  other  full  page  illustrabive  engravings,  all  in  the  highest  style 
of  engraving,  by  the  best  artists  in  the  country.  It  is  one  of  the  most  popular 
books  ever  published. 

Over  25,000  copies  of  this  work  were  sold  within  the  first  six  months,  and  the 
sales  are  constantly  increasing.  A  similar  volume,  on  the  Old  Testament,  by  Prof. 
Stowe,  will  be  issued  during  the  present  year.  Clergymen,  Experienced  Agents, 
and  Ladies,  will  find  Prof.  Stowe's  book  the  very  best  of  its  kind  to  solicit  for. 
For  agency,  terms,  etc.,  apply  or  address 

'       HARTFORD  PUBLISHING  CO.,  Hartford,  Conn.    . 


PROIFESSOR    STOTVK'S 

"HISTORY  OF  THE  BOOKS  OF  THE  BIBLE." 

IS   FULLY   APPROVED   BY  HUSDBKDS   OF   THE    CLERGYMEN   OF 

^LL  r)ENOMi]srA.a?io:Nrs. 

Thus,  foe  instance, 

Eev.  T.  J.  CoNANT,  D.  D.,  (Baptist,)  says: 

It  i~  an  honest  book:  dealing  fairh'  with  the  unlearned  reader,  and  laying  before 
him  without  concealment  or  disguise,  what  is  patent  to  the  Scholar,  in  the  just  be- 
lief that  what  is  SAFE  for  the  one  is  SAFE  lor  the  other. 

Eev.  W.  Ceoswell  Doane,  (Episcopal,)  says: 

While  he  (Prof.  Stowe)  disposes  of  some  so-called  difficulties  in  an  off-hand  and 
popular  way,  one  feels  that  he  is  amply  able  to  meet  them  upon  a  level  of  more  ac- 
curate arguing.     .     .        Free  extikely  froji  the  levity  of  ikrevekence. 

Eev.  Joel  Hawes,  D.  D.,(Congregationalist,  a  venerable  Clergyman  now  deceased,) 

said: 
I  am  prepared  to  give  it  my  hearty  commendation. 

Eev.  E.  N.  Kirk,  D.  D.,  (the  eminent  revivalist,)  says: 

It  is  the  best  adapted  to  make  the  canon  intelligible  to  our  people,  of  any  [book] 
I  have  read. 
President  Joseph  Cujimings,  D.  D.,  of  Wesleyan  University,  (Methodist,)  says: 

I  recommend,  without  hesitation  or  reserve,  Eev.  Dr.  Stowe's  work.  .  .  I  am 
fuUy  persuaded  it  will  accomplish  much  good. 

Prof.  Austin  Phelps,  of  Andover  Theological  Seminary,  says: 
I  have  seldom  or  ever  read  a  volume  which  seemed  to  me  to  settle  so  many  things 
in  so  simple  and  straightforward  a  way.     The  learning  and  philosophy  of  it  are 
equally  conspicuous. 

Eev.  C.  P.  Sheldon,  (Baptist,)  says: 

It  cannot  but  prove  most  valuable  in  checking  the  skeptical  ten- 
dencies of  the  times. 

Prof.  .J.  Haven,  D.  D.,  of  Chicago  Theological  Seminary,  says : 

It  wiU  be  a  chief  benefit  to  the  popular  mind.  It  is  thorough  and  complete  in  its 
handling  of  the  main  questions  discussed. 

Eev.  Dr.  Everts,  of  Chicago,  (Baptist,)  says: 

It  meets  all  the  latest  and  siore  popular  objections  to  the  wobd 
of  GOD,  enabling  even  the  unlearned  believer  to  give  the  reason  for  his  belief  to 
the  caviling  skeptic  or  honest  enquirer. 

Eev.  B.  F.  Eawlins,  Evansville,  Ind.,  (Methodist,)  says: 

It  is  certainly  the  greatest  antidote  foe  the  infidelity  OF  the 
TIMES  that  I  have  yet  met  with. 

Eev.  T.  W.  J.  Wylie,  Prof,  of  Exegetical  Theology  in  the  Reformed  Presbyterian 

Church,  says: 

Skeptical  objections    ....     are  fully  met.    It  is  pervaded  with 
an  evangelical  spirit  throughout.     It  is  just  what  is  wanted  for  general  circulation. 
It  will  do  much  to  counteract  the  subtle  poison  of  infidelity. 
Rev.  H.  A.  Nelson,  of  St.  Louis,  (Presbyterian,)  says: 

I  know  of  no  book  better  calculated  to  help  ordinary,  intelligent  and  candid 
minds  to  understand  and  appreciate  the  Bible. 

From  the  New  York  Independent. 
Prof.  Stowe's  book  ought  to  have  wings,  wherewith  it  shall  fly  to  everj^  minister's 
study-table,  and  perch  in  every  Sunday  School  library. 

Henry  Ward  Beecher,  in  his  pulpit,  said  of  Stowe's  History  of  the  Books  of  the 
Bible:  " I  hope  every  person  who  comes  to  Plymouth  Church  will  put  that  excel- 
lent book  into  his  libi-ary." 

From  Henry  M.  Stores,  Congregational  Church,  Cincinnati,  Ohio: 

Prof.  Stowe's  book  is  of  exceeding  value;  what  is  more,  is  of  exceeding  value 
to  the  masses,  not  of  Christians  only,  but  of  all  our  people. 

From  President  Wallace,  of  Monmouth  College,  Monmouth,  HI. : 
Prof.  Stowe's  History  of  the  Books  of  the  Bible  contains  a  mass  of  information — 
a  volume  of  great  value  to  the  common  reader  as  well  as  the  Scholar. 


AGEITTS  WAJSTTED 

FOR    THE    SALE    OF    THE 
HISTORY  OF 

RECOIfSTRUCTION  MEASURES  IN  CONGRESS. 


By  senator  WILSON,  of  Massachusetts. 


This  volume  contains  nineteen  chapters,  giving  brief  sketches 
of  the  various  measures  of  reconstruction — The  Civil  Eights 
Bill — The  Freedmen's  Bureau — Negro  Suffrage  in  the  District 
of  Columbia — The  Constitutional  Amendment — The  Admission 
of  Tennessee — Negro  Suffrage  in  the  Territories — The  several 
Reconstruction  Acts  and  other  measures. 

Senator  Wilson  has  sought,  in  this  volume,  to  give  a  brief 
and  impartial  narrative  of  the  legislation  in  Congress  since  the 
close  of  the  war,  relating  to  the  Reconstruction  and  restoration  of 
the  rebel  States  to  their  practical  relations.  In  tracing  the  record 
of  the  actors  in  the  introduction  and  discussion  of  these  great 
measures  of  legislation,  he  has  given  their  ideas  or  quoted  their 
words,  so  as  to  give  the  reader  a  clear  conception  of  their  posi- 
tion, feelings  and  opinions.  The  sketches  of  these  measures,  so 
comprehensive  in  their  scope  and  character,  cannot  fail  to  be  of 
interest  to  the  general  reader. 

This  work  wiU  be  printed  on  beautiful  white  paper,  from  new 
type,  which  has  been  expressly  selected  for  this  book.  It  will  be 
bound  in  a  substantial  manner.     Sold  by  subscription,  by 

HARTFORD    PUBLISHING    CO., 


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